BBC drops management bill by £21m

Former deputy director general Mark Byford left the BBC, which helped with the figures

The amount the BBC pays its senior managers has dropped by £21m in 18 months, the corporation has announced.

The pay bill for the BBC's top staff is now £57.49m, down from £78.53m in August 2009.

The BBC accepted recommendations to reduce its senior pay bill by 25% and its headcount by 20% by July 2013. The target was later moved forward to 2011.

Despite that, the figures have been exceeded, with headcount down by nearly 25% and the pay bill by almost 27%.

Director of business operations Lucy Adams said keeping salary costs under control was "hugely important" to the corporation.

She added: "The reductions we have achieved in this area reflect our commitment to ensuring we are delivering value for money in difficult economic times.

"We will continue to keep a close eye on these costs reducing them still further where we can."

The reduction in pay was helped by the departure of several high profile members of staff, such as deputy director general Mark Byford and marketing director Sharon Baylay.

Between them they accounted for £1.2m alone, although the money saved does not reflect the cost of redundancy pay.

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten has said he plans to make further cutbacks in the future, reducing the proportion of managers to 1% of the BBC's total headcount by 2015.