FAT CATS

BBC bosses pocketed bumper pay rises at a time when thousands of workers faced redundancy and viewing figures dropped. Director-general Mark Thompson's pay rose by £160,000 from £459,000 to £619,000 and Director of television Jana Bennett's basic pay rose from £255,000 to £321,000.

Jenny Abramsky, director of radio and music, received a total wage of £322,000 including benefits and bonus, while Deputy director-general Mark Byford's total take-home pay was £456,000, including a basic wage of £403,000, up from £351,000 the previous year.

The increases come at a time when the BBC is cutting costs and axing jobs. Some 1,132 posts have already been closed, with more than 2,000 to go next year. The BBC said the pay rises were part of a two-year process to bring executives' base pay up to the market median.

Michael Grade, the BBC chairman, defended pay rises for the executives and said the rises were fair. He said senior staff should not be "punished for their loyalty" when they could earn far more in the private sector. How "loyal" would they be without the massive pay increases?

He said the corporation's top executives are underpaid and that senior staff were working at a "discount" rate, despite their recent huge salary increases. He said, "People may not like the fact that somebody running a department of the BBC can earn this kind of money but they could earn an awful lot more elsewhere." Well maybe they should apply for other jobs outside of the BBC then. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Jul/06)

Energy bosses face a grilling from MPs over massive price rises. Company chiefs will be summoned to the House of Commons to justify "fat cat" salaries for themselves while their customers face soaring fuel bills. And consumer watchdogs want the Government to outlaw disconnections, which are running at about 20,000 a year, to protect hard-up families.

A spokesman for Energywatch said, "The scale of the increases is inevitably going to lead tens of thousands of households into debt and under threat of disconnection." The call comes after Britain's major energy firms announced a series of inflation-busting price rises despite making massive profits. British Gas, which made a £288million profit for the first half of 2004, has increased gas by 12.4% and electricity by 9.4% - the second time this year its customers have faced higher bills.

Npower followed their lead with an 11.8% rise for gas and 7.6% for electricity while Scottish and Southern Energy has announced price rises of up to 9% - then boosted the salaries of five executive directors, including £615,000-a-year Ian Marchant, by a total of £460,000.

But that is peanuts compared with the boss of British Gas, whose package was worth more than £3.2million in 2003. Sir Roy Gardner, chief executive of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, saw his pay alone soar by 40% to £1.48million. Against this background, MPs are now widening the scope of a Parliamentary inquiry into disconnections so they can question fuel suppliers about price rises.

The investigation follows the case of elderly couple George and Gertrude Bates who died in their London home in 2003 after British Gas cut them off because they missed a £140 payment. (Source: Sunday Mirror)