Managing the BBC's estate: Chair's statement

While it is good news that the BBC has made progress in shrinking its estate, it needs to make much better use of some of its most expensive buildings.

It is staggering that the running cost of the BBC’s London headquarters at Broadcasting House ─ not including the cost of specialist space, such as studios ─ was around 50% more than other properties in the same part of London and almost three times higher than the UK average for comparable buildings – at £1,422 per square metre in 2012-13.

The huge cost of Broadcasting House is the single most important reason why the overall cost of running the BBC’s main properties is well above external benchmarks.

And it’s not just reducing running costs where the BBC needs to take action. It also needs to get more out of its estate and rid of all of the space it no longer needs.

I am deeply concerned that the BBC sold Television Centre, a publicly funded asset, to companies that used Luxembourg-based financing structures when we believe so many of these financing structures are used to avoid paying tax.

I look forward to discussing how the BBC plans to make better use of its buildings to achieve good value for money for the licence-fee payer when it appears before my Committee on 25 February.

Further information

• National Audit Office report: Managing the BBC's estate
• About Parliament: Select Committees
• Visit Parliament: Watch committees