2 USE OF THE NEW BUILDINGS
10. Two of the new buildings at White City 2 were
completed on time in October 2003 and the last was ready for occupation
in January 2004, three months ahead of schedule. The BBC has used
the new buildings to accommodate staff vacating other sites in
London, but a year after the last building in the development
was completed, 22% of the office space was still unoccupied. The
BBC acknowledged that the full occupation of the site had not
taken place as quickly as would have been ideal, although the
level of unoccupied space had now been reduced to 6.5% and the
BBC hoped to quickly increase occupancy levels towards 100%.[15]
11. The BBC plans to reduce the number of people
it employs by nearly 4,000 and proposes to move a further 1,500
staff to Manchester. The BBC said the precise impact of these
changes on occupancy levels at White City 2 would not be clear
until a final decision had been made on the proposed move to Manchester.
However, the BBC had identified a large amount of space in London
that could be vacated and, even with the fall in staff numbers,
considered that reducing the size of the London estate would not
mean that White City 2 would not be fully used. For example, the
BBC planned to dispose of its Woodlands site where its commercial
subsidiary BBC Worldwide Limited was currently based, and move
the staff to the White City 2 site.[16]
12. White City 2 has an enhanced design specification
intended to provide flexibility to accommodate a range of different
uses. For example, the capacity of the floors to withstand heavy
loads is significantly higher than in typical office buildings;
and the Media Centre building has been designed to be adaptable
to studio production, but it is currently occupied mainly by office
staff who do not need the high specification provided. The BBC
told us that, as it rationalised its estate, White City 2 would
be heavily used by programme makers and it was confident that
the buildings would be used to their full capability.[17]
13. The Energy Centre, which forms part of White
City 2, has space for a combined heat and power installation.
The installation was included in the original design, but the
BBC removed it from the specification after concluding that the
expense was not justified. The Energy Centre was completed in
October 2003, but when the occupation of White City 2 began, the
BBC had not been clear about what the energy requirements would
be and had decided to keep empty the space in the Energy Centre
for the combined heat and power installation. The office space
in the Energy Centre also remained empty, at a cost of £900,000
a year.[18]
14. The BBC was going to decide how to proceed when
it had confirmed its plans for staff moves and assessed the impact
of job reductions. If the combined heat and power installation
did not make economic sense, the space would be used for office
accommodation. In the meantime the BBC is paying for empty space.[19]
15 Qq 6, 69-72; C&AG's Report, para 25 Back
16
Qq 8-9, 43-46, 51-52; Ev 16 Back
17
Qq 7, 52; C&AG's Report, paras 11, 28, 46 Back
18
Qq 32, 37, 114; C&AG's Report, paras 49-50 and Figures 4,
12 Back
19
Qq 105, 114 Back
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