BBC chiefs paid £3m a year to run their cars

Senior managers at the BBC are paid more than £3 million of licence fee-payers' money each year in car allowances, it was revealed today.

The figure was labelled "outrageous" by staff and comes at a time when the corporation is facing budget cuts of 20 per cent and 2,000 job losses over the next five years.

Those in the top grade of senior management are entitled to about £7,800 a year, or £650 a month, while those in the lower tier receive £4,800, or £400 per month, towards their own car.

In the 2010/11 financial year, about 540 senior managers shared a car allowance pot of £3,279,866. In 2009/10 the figure was £3,470,119 and it was £3,381,439 in 2008/2009.

One BBC insider said: "This cash is essentially for providing free cars for the top brass and it's frankly outrageous. Newsrooms are being hit very hard with budget cuts of up to 40 per cent and thousands are facing redundancy.

"Is a free car really justifiable for every single one of these senior managers? When the BBC are looking at areas to cut back, it seems far more sensible to make savings in areas such as this one, which seems frivolous when newsrooms across the country are facing serious cuts."

The figures come as it was revealed that the BBC's current affairs show Inside Out is to have its budget slashed by 40 per cent.

A BBC spokesman said: "As with many major organisations, the BBC pays a car allowance to senior members of staff as part of their overall remuneration package and we operate a policy of discounting senior salaries by up to 80 per cent against the market rate.

"We are on course to cut our senior management salary bill by 25 per cent by the end of the year, and we have set out our plans to reduce the salary bill still further in future."