I’ve transformed Beeb into a lean machine, boasts the outgoing boss

TONY Hall will claim he has made the BBC ‘leaner’ and ‘more efficient than ever’ in his final speech as directorgeneral today.

His remarks will raise eyebrows among critics who claim the corporation has been wasteful with licence-fee payers’ cash.

Lord Hall took up the role in 2013 amid the fall-out from Jimmy Savile scandal.

He is set to say at the opening session of this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival: ‘I don’t need to remind you, seven years ago we were an organisation in crisis.

‘There were failings over executive pay-offs. There were fundamental questions hanging over our future.

‘Today we’re an organisation transformed, inside and out. We’re leaner and more efficient than ever.’

Despite Lord Hall’s claims, last year’s annual report for 2018-19 showed that the staff headcount at the BBC’s public service arm had actually gone up from the year before from 18,210 to 19,231 people. It also showed that the number of on-air talent paid more than £150,000 had gone up from 64 to 75 individuals, although a ‘snapshot’ for 2019-20 showed it was about the same at 74. The report also showed the overall spend on on-air roles had increased.

Disclosures about on-screen salaries revealed Gary Lineker was the highest paid star, earning up to nearly £1.75million. But the same report showed the headcount of senior leaders had been slashed, as had other costs.

The BBC is going through a process of severe cuts which is expected to result in thousands of job losses. In his speech Lord

Hall is set to reveal that the corporation has asked for more money from Government to help it try and reach a global audience of 1billion by the end of the decade. The BBC currently reaches 468million people each week.

He is expected to say: ‘The forces of disinformation and social media tend to feed on fracture and drive polarisation... What we do, as a public service broadcaster, is a force in the opposite direction.’

It is understood he will say the BBC’s role is to help protect the country’s ‘democratic integrity’.

Lord Hall will be replaced by Tim Davie on September 1.