BBC redundancy costs triple

It’s been a difficult year for the BBC. Whether it’s Emily Maitlis or Peter Crouch, Andrew Marr or Simon McCoy, a whole host of stars have departed the Beeb as the corporation battles to remain relevant in the twentieth first-century. Budget cuts and increased competition mean that journalists with more than 1,000 years of experience have taken redundancy, retired or accepted big money deals from commercial rivals over the past two years. The mass exits have prompted fears of a ‘brain drain’ of talent with insiders expressing concerns about the difficulties of filling the smorgasbord of top posts which are currently vacant.

Now a Freedom of Information request by Mr S has revealed the cost of all these departures to the corporation’s hard-pressed coffers. Severance pay outs tripled in a year from £23.4 million in 2019/20 for 331 employees to £74.5 million for 1,106 – an average of £67,000 per person in 2020/21, the most recent year for which figures are available. The