Fury as BBC chief earning over £500k spent nearly a month at four-star London hotel paid by taxpayer money instead of commuting back to Oxfordshire home
BBC director-general Tim Davie spent more than 30 nights in London hotels last year despite earning £525,000 and living just an hour’s drive from his office, it has emerged.
Davie racked up over £3,000 in accommodation costs at a four-star central London hotel rather than commuting to his £4million home near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
Documents show he stayed 26 nights at the same luxury hotel during the 2023-24 financial year, with the bill being paid by licence fee payers.
The corporation’s £310,000-a-year chief financial officer Alan Dickson also faced scrutiny over his hotel expenses, spending approximately 65 nights in London hotels during the same period at a cost of nearly £8,000.
Dickson, who is based in Glasgow, spent 12 nights at the same hotel favoured by Davie, accumulating a £1,600 bill over just four three-night stays between March and April 2024.
Analysis revealed Mr Davie’s hotel stays were even higher in the previous financial year, exceeding 30 days at his preferred establishment.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith condemned the hotel stays as “astonishing” for someone living within “striking distance” of London.
“This is simply intolerable. There ought to a serious inquiry by the BBC internally into the money they haemorrhage through these type of costs,” he said.
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Duncan Smith called for both parliamentary and BBC investigations into the spending, stating Davie “must set an example.”
“Every company that I know is already tightening their belts. The BBC should be doing the same. Expense levels at that point are just unacceptable,” he added.
The former Conservative leader expressed concern about licence fee payers’ reaction, saying they “already baulk at the cost of the licence” and “won’t want to know their licence is paying for bureaucratic costs in the BBC.”
The BBC defended the hotel stays, with a source at the corporation saying policies were in place to ensure spending was “proportionate” and “appropriate.”
The source said Mr Davie occasionally needed to “stay late to attend business-related events and/or start early,” making it “more economical” to remain in London.
Regarding Dickson’s expenses, the source explained his Glasgow-based role provided financial leadership across the whole BBC group, necessitating regular travel to London.
“Like any media organisation, staff are sometimes required to use hotels and we always keep costs to a minimum,” a BBC spokesman said.