MPs blast BBC for £87m EastEnders set bill

THE BBC was yesterday accused of ‘complacency’ over the astonishing £87million bill for its new EastEnders set.

The project, called E20 after the soap’s fictitious postcode, is already £27million over its £60million budget and is not expected to be completed until May 2023, nearly five years late. MPs said BBC bosses ‘badly’ managed the construction and made a ‘serious error’ by failing to consider what project management skills they needed.

Members of the public accounts committee said they were ‘disappointed by the BBC’s complacency in managing this project, particularly in its early stages’.

MPs were told the original set, built in 1984, is ‘no longer fit for purpose’. The BBC is building the new set at its Elstree studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We strongly reject the notion that there has been any complacency in managing this project. Like any building work of this scale, there have been challenges along the way.’