Anger as new Albert Square cost rockets to £87m

BBC bosses have come under fire after the cost of the new EastEnders set soared to £27million more than its original budget.

The E20 project to rebuild the soap’s HQ in Elstree, Hertfordshire, is now costing £87million in licence fee money, rather than £60million.

In 2013 bosses said it would be finished this year. But this was later pushed back to 2020 and delays mean some areas now will not be finished until 2023.

The 45 per cent rise has been blamed on lack of expertise, overoptimism regarding costs and delays in construction.

In a damning report, the National Audit Office concluded that the BBC is no longer delivering value for money on the project, which aims to replace the set constructed to last just two years back in 1984. The aim of the project is, ultimately, to save the corporation almost £500,000 a year and allow filming in high definition.

In 2013, the BBC said E20 would cost £59.7million and be completed by August 2018.

Due partly to cost increases, the BBC revised its plans in 2015, moving its target completion date to October 2020. However, in October 2017 that was revised again and the BBC now forecasts that E20 will cost £86.7million and not be complete until 2023. The report found that the BBC had “inadequate expertise” in construction projects, the EastEnders production team was not properly involved in the work on the set, and there was an 11-month wait to secure a construction contract. The watchdog concluded: “The BBC will not be able to deliver value for money on the E20 programme in the way that it envisaged in 2015. Disappointingly, some of the reasons for this were built into E20 at the outset and could have been addressed earlier.” Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the Commons Committee of Public Accounts, said: “It is critical, given the BBC’s funding pressures, that every pound of licence fee payers’ money is spent effectively.

“It is concerning that the BBC has been unable to keep to budget and time on this project again, given my committee had already heard about the need to revise its scope in 2016.”

The BBC said: “The set of EastEnders was only intended for use for two years. Over 30 years later, the show remains one of the BBC’s flagship programmes and yet is filming from a set that is no longer fit for purpose.

“It’s a large, complex project which has already delivered many other vital improvements at BBC Elstree Centre, but like any building work of this scale there have been challenges on the way, including construction market issues beyond our control and from working on a brownfield site.”

BIG OVERSPENDERS

1. Wembley Stadium cost £798m despite a fixed price of £326.5m.

2. London’s Crossrail was supposed to be £14.8bn but the bill may now be £16.8bn.

3. Converting the Olympic Stadium for football cost £323m, a £133m overspend.

4. The price of HS2 rail project has risen 71 per cent since 2010 to £56bn.

5. The new British Library cost of £511m was three times the original budget.

6. The Scottish Parliament cost £431m, 10 times the original estimate.