BBC CHIEF WHO LIVES 4,000 MILES FROM WORK
Angry MPS demand inquiry over appointment
THE BBC has been accused of ‘breathtaking arrogance’ after it hired a manager who lives in the United States to oversee the movement of staff four miles across London.
Guy Bradshaw, who lives more than 4,000 miles away in Kentucky, has been handed a key role in the relocation of BBC journalists and producers to the new Broadcasting House.
He was hired despite the fact MPs savaged the BBC in an official report last year for giving him a senior role in the Corporation’s controversial move to Salford.
In a withering attack last May, the powerful Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee said the BBC had opened itself to ‘self-inflicted and predictable ridicule’ by sanctioning the extraordinary arrangement. Such decisions cannot simply be dismissed as inconsequential gaffes. They lower the esteem of the BBC, its senior management and the BBC Trust in the eyes of the public and its own staff.’
The committee called on Trust chairman Lord Patten ‘to ensure the BBC is seen always to lead by example in the future’. MPs now plan to raise the matter with BBC director-general Mark Thompson.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal Mr Bradshaw has been transferred to another senior
role at the Corporation while still living in the United States.
He is a project manager er responsible for organising the he relocation of more than 5,000 0 people, as well as technical and d broadcasting equipment, from m Television Centre at Shepherd’s Bush, and from Bush House in The Aldwych, to the BBC’s new £1billion London headquarters rs in Portland Place.
Last week, however, Mr Bradadshaw was seen strolling in the sunshine through the Kentucky ucky town of Midway, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Last night, Lib Dem MP Adrian drian Sanders, a member of the Culture ulture Committee, said: ‘This shows hows breathtaking arrogance by y the BBC.
‘We don’t produce these reports ports for a laugh. They have a serious
‘We don’t produce these reports for a laugh’
purpose. We have the best interest of the licence fee-payer at heart. If the BBC is not responding to our criticism, we may have to call them back and hold them to account.’
Committee chairman, Conservative MP John Whittingdale, added: ‘I am sure this is something we would want to talk to the director-general about.
‘It does look contemptuous [of the committee], almost like a deliberate snub by the BBC by giving him a new appointment after the committee was so critical.’
In his new role, Mr Bradshaw is attached to a division called BBC Workplace, which manages the Corporation’s multi-million pound property portfolio.
Despite the seniority of his position, he is not a BBC staff member and is believed to be paid through his own company, Stone Ticket, which he set up last year. The Government is clamping down on such arrangements, which allow individuals to avoid income tax and national insurance, instead paying corporation tax at a lower rate.
Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander said last week that he wanted to ban ‘off-payroll engagement without sufficient transparency’ throughout the public sector, including the BBC. According to Treasury sources, he is keen for the BBC to publish details of its payments to contract workers.
BBC employees are furious about the special arrangements put in place for Mr Bradshaw but claim their protests have been ignored by senior managers.
Workers sent a letter to The Mail on Sunday last week, describing themselves as ‘a group of concerned and angry BBC staff’.
They wrote: ‘Contrary to indications given by management… the BBC has continued to employ Mr Bradshaw through his own personal (tax efficient) service company, engaging him as a freelancer so he pays no PAYE or national insurance.
‘He has been given the plum job of managing the move of staff to New Broadcasting House.
‘As employees we have questioned this but received no response from management. It’s a scandal and one that, for some reason, management won’t tackle.’
Mr Bradshaw, 45, and his wife Melanie, 51, own two properties in Midway, in the heart of Kentucky’s racehorse breeding country. He was out shopping in the town on Friday but declined to speak to a Mail on Sunday reporter.
He started working full-time on his new project on April 1 when he was still involved with the final stages of the Salford move.
Earlier in his career, Mr Bradshaw was on the BBC staff for nearly 20 years but was made redundant in 2006. However, he was soon working for the Corporation again despite his move to America.
‘Scandal management won’t tackle’
As the BBC’s Migration Manager, he was employed through a company called Equals Consulting. In 2010, when he was still leading the Salford project, he worked 25 weeks in Britain, just under the threshold for paying UK income tax.
Yesterday the BBC refused to discuss Mr Bradshaw’s salary arrangements but said he covered all the costs of airline tickets and accommodation himself when working for the Corporation in the UK.
A spokesman said: ‘Guy Bradshaw’s personal arrangements, such as where he lives, do not have any bearing on his ability to do the job and do not cost the BBC any extra money. Any suggestion the BBC is not complying with HMRC regulations is not true.’
Lord Patten was unavailable for comment. A BBC Trust spokesman said: ‘The employment of individuals is a matter for the executive, not the Trust.’
IS THE BBC living in a parallel universe? Last year, The Mail on Sunday revealed its decision to put ‘migration manager’ Guy Bradshaw in charge of moving 2,500 members of staff from London to Salford, despite the fact that he lived 4,000 miles away in Kentucky, America.
The sheer insanity of the situation inflamed the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which accused the Corporation of opening itself up to ‘self-inflicted and predictable ridicule’.
Yet now we learn that Mr Bradshaw is working on the transfer of more than 5,000 employees to the newly refurbished Broadcasting House in Central London. They are relocating from the BBC’s other sites in the capital, Bush House (a distance of two miles) and BBC Television Centre (four miles).
Mr Bradshaw, by the way, still lives 4,000 miles away. To add further insult, he is employed as a freelance, an arrangement that helps people to pay less tax and which the Government is trying to discourage.
His original appointment was beyond all comprehension; to engage him again, for a similar task, is simply arrogant. The Corporation’s contempt for the fee-payer – and for Parliament – knows no bounds.