Luke Johnson attacks corporation's '£1bn refit' of Broadcasting House at Oxford Media Convention
The outgoing Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, today criticised the BBC for the amount spent on the refurbishment of its London headquarters.
Johnson, who will hand over to Lord Burns this month, claimed the behind- schedule and over-budget refurbishment of Broadcasting House was an example of a lack of financial accountability.
'The BBC has so much money it … can spend £1bn on something it already owns,' he told the Oxford Media Convention, adding it was 'a lot of money to spend on an office block'.
The refurbishment of Broadcasting House, a Grade II listed building completed in 1932, was due to be finished in 2008 and cost £813m. However, a series of setbacks – including the removal of the original architects – has pushed back the completion date.
It is believed a National Audit Office report on the project, due to be published next month, will be critical of the BBC.
Patricia Hodgson, a member of the corporation's governance and regulatory body, the BBC Trust, admitted at the Oxford event the project had been a 'major problem'. But she added: 'Broadcasting House was clearly a major problem … There will be a published account of this within the next month.' 'What the trust did was it closed down the phase where there were problems, took a grip and brought in the NAO to report precisely because of the concerns you have expressed. It will more than satisfy your concerns.'
A BBC Trust spokesman added: 'Patricia Hodgson was stating that there is an NAO report on estates in the pipeline. This was commissioned by the Trust as part of its programme to ensure value for money for licence fee payers and is included in the Trust's publicly available work plan.'
The shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, also speaking in Oxford today, warned media companies bidding for government money to run replacement ITV regional news pilots will face legal action if the Conservatives win the general election later this year.
Hunt said the Tories wanted an all-encompassing regional news solution to empower local radio, newspapers and websites with city-based franchises.
'Let me be clear, we do not support these provisions in the digital economy bill and we do not support the pilot [regional news] schemes,' he added.
The contracts are not due to be signed until May [and] anyone looking to sign one should understand that we'll do all we can to legally unpick them if David Cameron enters No 10. And if they haven't been signed, we won't be doing so,' Hunt said.
Earlier this month the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the eight successful consortiums to bid to run pilots for replacement ITV regional news bulletins in Scotland, Wales and England.
Companies pitching for the contracts include News at Ten producer ITN, broadcasters UTV and STV, newspaper publishers Trinity Mirror, Newsquest and Johnston Press, and news agency the Press Association.
The Guardian's editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, also speaking at the Oxford event, said the industry had to explore a 'hybrid' model for local and regional news, in which traditional media married their expertise with those on a hyperlocal level. 'Traditional players who get this hybrid model will be in with a chance of being here in five years' time,' he said.
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