Only 34 locals given jobs at BBC Salford exploding claim that move would create work for local people

Just 34 local people have been given jobs at the BBC's £200million new northern headquarters, it emerged yesterday.

Out of 2,300 people working at the corporation's MediaCity base in Salford, Greater Manchester, barely 1.5 per cent are from the city.

The figures - revealed following a Freedom of Information application - explode the BBC's claim that moving departments including sport and children's programmes to the North West would create new jobs there.



Move: Just 34 people from Salford have been given jobs at the BBC's new £200million northern headquarters

Instead, critics say millions of pounds of licence fee cash has been wasted in the name of 'geographical correctness'.

Two years since staff began working at the complex, the vast majority have either moved up from London or from regional offices in or around Manchester.

The overall increase in local employment in the last 15 months is just ten people.


In January last year the Daily Mail revealed just 24 people from Salford had been given jobs there - a figure branded 'shocking' by local MP Hazel Blears, who called on the BBC to 'up its game'.

The local people employed there include nine Salford teenagers were taken on to perform six-month 'ambassador' roles, meeting and greeting visitors, when the corporation moved to MediaCity in 2011.

The new figures show that just two have secured permanent jobs with the BBC, although some still work there part-time.



Shift: The new BBC Breakfast set in Salford. The majority of workers at the northern headquarters have moved from London or regional offices

A further 32 people from Salford work at the complex, in roles described as 'business support', 'content-making and journalism' and 'new media and technology'.

Their salaries range from £16,547 to £50,500.

The figures exclude workers such as cleaners and construction staff employed by contractors.

According to the latest figures, 11,400 people are currently out of work in Salford.

Stephen Kingston, editor of the campaigning Salford Star newspaper, said MediaCity was becoming a 'bubble', divorced from the area that housed it.

'The majority of locals with jobs there are cleaners and security staff,' he said.

'There doesn't seem to be any accountability. At the end of the day MediaCity is owned by a private company and it doesn't care about the people of Salford.' BBC departments moved to Salford include sport, children's programmes, Breakfast television and Radio 5 Live.

However presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins both refused to make the change and were replaced.

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson blasted Salford as 'a small suburb with a Starbucks and a canal with ducks on it'.

In addition to the BBC, the privately-owned MediaCity complex in Salford Quays also houses several ITV departments, with a new Coronation Street set under construction nearby.

The BBC pointed out that in total 221 MediaCity workers lived in Salford, although they weren't from the city originally.

A spokeswoman said: 'Our Salford-based workforce has continued to grow and we have seen the first of our local apprentices and young ambassadors progress from their training schemes into permanent jobs.

'Ten per cent of our workers live in the borough and we continue to work in schools and colleges to support the long-term development of skills and experience.'