BBC rapped over staff move costs

It said controls over the exceptions to its relocation policy for the move to Salford were “inadequate”, which the BBC Trust agreed was “unacceptable”.

In a report the NAO noted the final cost of the move was likely to come in under the £233m budget.

But it said it was too early to assess whether the move – which included the sport and children’s programmes departments – would give long-term value for money to licence fee payers.

By December there were 2,300 BBC staff working in Salford including 854 who relocated from outside the area.

The NAO report said the BBC made 91 exceptions to the relocation policy, often to take into account personal circumstances such as disabilities and caring responsibilities, although some of these had not been documented.

In one case, which was verbally approved according to the report, a member of staff received an allowance for selling a second home in the east of England while retaining a London home.

The NAO found 44 staff received more than the monthly maximum £1,900 remote location allowance, but only six were recorded as exceptions.

The report also said the BBC “did not apply a consistent approach to checking that relocating staff had actually incurred the costs that they were claiming”.