BBC's landmark project to spend extra £700m outside London has gone ahead ... trends now
The BBC's landmark project to spend an extra £700 million outside London in the coming years has gone ahead 'without clear plan', MPs have said in a new report.
The new report by the influential Public Accounts Committee raises a number of concerns about the broadcaster's implementation of its Across the UK project, which is aimed at making the BBC less London-centric.
In 2021, the corporation announced the plans to cumulatively spend at least extra £700 million outside London between March 2021 and March 2028. The idea was to make the corporation more representative of the whole of the UK.
But the new report has raised concerns the BBC is 'behind schedule in key areas' of the plans. It also pointed to 'unrealistic timelines' for parts of the project and areas where it had 'missed its targets'.
It also accused the BBC of having been 'too confident' of what it can deliver in the future.
The BBC 's landmark project to spend an extra £700 million outside London in the coming years has gone ahead 'without clear plan', MPs have said in a new report. File image shows Broadcasting House
ic. In 2021, the corporation announced the plans to cumulatively spend at least extra £700 million outside London. Pictured: Director-general of the BBC Tim Davie
The chair of the committee, Labour MP, Dame Meg Hillier, raised concerns about the BBC 'cherry-picking' examples of success for the project and 'sweeping bad news stories under the rug' by saying they were not part of the programme.
She added that the committee's report should act as a 'timely reminder' of the importance of 'seeking value for money, rather than just money spent'.
Reacting to the report, one of the key BBC executives in charge of delivering the project said he was 'disappointed by some of the commentary' in the report.
The PAC's report said: 'The BBC's plans for Across the UK are overly focused on the actions it will take, rather than what impact it intends to achieve.
'The BBC considered moving £700 million of expenditure outside London to be a key measure of success of the programme, but the BBC did not give us a coherent explanation of the impact it expects to deliver for licence fee payers from this commitment.'
MPs were concerned that the corporation's confidence that it would deliver the project as 'expected' were 'misplaced' given parts of the plans were behind schedule.
They added that 'in some key areas the has made slow progress or missed its targets'.
The report recommended: 'The BBC should urgently finalise its plans for getting back on track where it is behind on implementation of Across the UK, including transferring audio spend outside London and its plans for apprentices.'
