Day Debt

The BBC Trust is a watchdog of the BBC and has the responsibility of giving maximum returns to all those who pay licence fees to BBC. Of late it has embarked upon a project to assert its independence and has spent a lot of money collected through licence fee.

The trust has leased the first floor of a house of the Edwardian era for a period of eight years to seat its sixty employees. This is to become the headquarters of the Trust and is at a prime location in the centre of London. The lease price is £2.2m and another £400,000 has been spent on refurbishing the building with fittings. £250,000 has been used on interior design of the office space.

This new property was taken because prior to this, the Trust had shared office space along with two other departments of BBC in a building owned by the corporation. When this building was sold off, the BBC offered space to the trust in another building of the corporation, but the Trust rejected it and went in for this new property saying that this will safeguard its independence.

This action of the BBC Trust has come under the scanner because it is seen as unnecessary. The Culture secretary has given the government’s view by saying that they will support the corporation. The opposition Tories have threatened the dissolution of the Trust if they come to power after the next general elections.

At a time when the Trust is facing the threat to its existence, the action seems unwise. The report of the National Audit Office would further provide detailed information about a project estimated at a cost of twenty million and two years. This would further damage the reputation of the Trust prompting the shadow minister to question the logic of spending so much money by a Trust, the sole objective of whose existence is to look after proper utilisation of public money.