Albert Hall members hold prime Proms tickets back

A ROW has broken out at the Royal Albert Hall over why hundreds of its best seats for the BBC’S Last Night of the Proms have not been put on sale to the general public at face-value prices.

Around a quarter – 1,275 – of the 5,000 seats at the charity-run Royal Albert Hall are owned by private individuals who are free to sell them.

It is understood that one of the biggest seat holders – Leon Baroukh – was challenged at the hall’s annual meeting in May. Mr Baroukh, a vice-president of the hall, replied that all 5,000 Last Night tickets could not be sold to the public because “it is part and parcel of a whole range of concessions that the members have made to the hall”.

Mr Baroukh has been a member of the hall’s ruling council since 2008 and was reappointed to it at the meeting. The council has a role in deciding which concerts should be open entirely to the public at face value prices.

Mr Baroukh told members he owned eight seats directly and controlled a further 39 through “connected parties”.

One member asked Mr Baroukh if he would regard it as “potentially provocative” to have someone who can control 47 seats and sit on the ruling council, pointing out that an income from 47 seats could be worth up to £500,000 a year. Mr Baroukh replied: “Our whole model is provocative if you want to look at it from that perspective.”

Full public access to all 5,000 seats at face value is allowed at around a third of all concerts. However, last year members of the public were given full access in just six out of the 75 Proms concerts.

Last night the Charity Commission told The Daily Telegraph: “The fact that charity trustees are in a position to benefit financially from their role is likely to be damaging to the charity and to public trust more widely.

“We have made clear to the trustees of the Royal Albert Hall that they must swiftly address serious concerns about the charity’s management and governance arising from the lack of independence of the council.”

A spokesman for the Royal Albert Hall said 60 per cent of all members’ tickets are returned to the box office for resale every year. She said members voluntarily excluded themselves “from significantly more events each year than the maximum provided for in the constitutional framework”.

Mr Baroukh did not respond to a request for comment.