Interview: Michael Lyons fights the BBC Trust's corner

GUARDIAN Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:00:05 GMT

As chairman of the BBC Trust, Michael Lyons faces an internal battle over costs – and an external one for his job The new home of the BBC Trust may be close to one of London's most expensive private hospitals and full of lovely primary-coloured sofas but it is not, insists its chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, expensive. "It was the cheapest property on offer by some margin," he says of the former Google call centre. The price of things, especially buildings, is a particularly sensitive issue for the BBC at the moment. Not only is the National Audit Office (NAO) about to produce what is expected to be a highly critical report into the £813m refurbishment of Broadcasting House , but outrage over the cost of executive pay and onscreen talent over the past two years has fed into almost every other criticism of the corporation and its governing body. Allied with criticism from commercial rivals of the corporation's expansionist ambitions, it is the issue most likely to annoy members of the public, although most polls suggest they still support the BBC. Next month, the director general, Mark Thompson, is expected to publish a strategic review demanded by the trust. It is set to tackle the size and shape of the BBC and whether it is spending its guaranteed £3.6bn a year income wisely. Losing grip If Lyons has a favourite word to sum up both the failings of the past and the desire to get back on track, it is "grip" – financial and editorial. "The BBC relaxed both its editorial grip and its grip on value for money," he says. "And to some extent the challenge of recent years has been to reassert that grip and that focus on value for money, particularly in how much you pay to top managers and onscreen talent." The "wholly indefensible" Ross/Brand broadcast in October 2008 led to a much-needed "tightening up of editorial controls", he adds, which had loosened during the early noughties. Overspending on Broadcasting House can all be traced back to those years, according to Lyons. Greg Dyke, the person in charge of the BBC at the time, is now leading a review of the UK's creative sector for the Conservatives. In response, he says: "No controls went out of the window. We expanded the organisation, which is why we were given an increased licence fee." Lyons clearly sees the 25% cut in the executive pay bill over the next three years as one of the trust's great achievements, while the trust's critics see yet another example of it doing just a tad too little, too late. In an interview with Ariel, the BBC's in-house magazine, Thompson perhaps inadvisedly said BBC salaries could not be compared with those in local government. "It's not a county council," sniffs Lyons, "but it's not a casino either." To help meet the target, bonuses have been frozen and two senior managers – Pat Loughrey and Richard Sambrook – have not been replaced. Pay negotiations are likely to be tougher. "The BBC needs to be more confident that people will accept the most extraordinary discount to come and work for it," says Lyons, adding that the corporation must bring on more new talent from "all parts of the nation" rather than the same old (expensive) faces. So the bidding wars in which the BBC competed aggressively with its commercial rivals are over. "We are simply not going to see what the public regard as excessive salaries, so [the BBC] must be harder in negotiations and much more willing to walk away." Proud of starting the vogue for publishing executive expenses, he believes revealing details of individual pay deals for talent would push up rather than depress pay but promises "more information" on the total cost of onscreen performers. His own basic pay of £143,000 last year was boosted by a £70,000 benefits package that covered his travel costs to and from his home in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, use of a London chauffeur and hotel accommodation that he often has to use four nights a week for his part-time job. Disclosing expenses may not "always..

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