Wish you were her? Outrage as head of the UK's tourism quango VisitBritain gets £230,000 pay deal, topping the package earned by the CPS boss

Britain's tourism board faces calls for an inquiry into executives’ inflation-busting pay rises and lavish bonuses.

Taxpayer-funded VisitBritain gave boss Sally Balcombe a 6 per cent raise and £17,500 bonus. Her total pay package was worth up to £230,000.

She received the same bonus and a 10 per cent salary increase the previous year, despite the agency falling £61 million short of its target to increase visitor spending in Britain in 2016/17

Sally Balcombe, pictured, has just received a pay package which is higher than Metropolitan Police's Commissioner, Cressida Dick and the Crown Prosecution Service's Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders

Sally Balcombe, pictured, has just received a pay package which is higher than Metropolitan Police's Commissioner, Cressida Dick and the Crown Prosecution Service's Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders

Taxpayer-funded VisitBritain gave boss Sally Balcombe a 6 per cent raise and £17,500 bonus

Taxpayer-funded VisitBritain gave boss Sally Balcombe a 6 per cent raise and £17,500 bonus

Her pay for running the quango, which has just 285 full-time staff, is the same as that of the head of the Metropolitan Police, who manages more than 42,000 employees.

Her pay also outstrips that of the boss of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has more than 5,600 full-time staff.

VisitBritain receives over £60 million in public money a year. At least seven of its senior executives enjoy pay packages worth over £150,000, and the same number received bonuses of between £5,000 and £20,000.

Last night MP John Mann, of the Commons’ Treasury select committee, called for an inquiry into executive pay at the agency.

VisitBritain, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is tasked with raising Britain’s profile worldwide, increasing the volume and value of tourism exports and developing our so-called ‘visitor economy’.

According to the British Tourist Authority’s 2017/18 report published this summer, ten senior executives at the quango are on basic salaries and allowances of over £100,000.

Ms Balcombe’s total remuneration was between £225,000 and £230,000, up from £215,000–£220,000 the previous year. The report does not give the exact figure for executives.

A freedom of information request by the Mail also found that VisitBritain’s directors ran up £164,307 in expenses from 2018/19 even as visitor numbers to the UK and the amount they spent fell.

Ms Balcombe and nine directors ran up bills of £73,231.75 on air fares, £62,367.15 on hotels and subsistence, £10,771.28 for taxis and £4,728.57 for entertaining in a year.

During the same period, visits to the UK dropped by 2 per cent and spending by visitors plunged by 7 per cent.

MP John Mann (pictured), of the Commons' Treasury select committee, called for an inquiry into executive pay at VisitBritain in light of the recent findings

MP John Mann (pictured), of the Commons' Treasury select committee, called for an inquiry into executive pay at VisitBritain in light of the recent findings

‘Americas director’ Gavin Landry spent £12,435 and £10,967 on air fares, while Hazel Cunningham, director of business services, spent £7,269 on air fares – an average of £1,817 per transaction – and £2,928 on hotels and subsistence.

John O’Connell, head of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the public would be ‘outraged’ by the high salaries, describing the figures as ‘yet another disgraceful example’ of ‘extremely generous’ public sector pay.

Mr Mann added: ‘These figures are shocking. If there is any increase in tourism it’s because sterling is falling making it cheaper for [tourists] to visit. The Public Accounts Committee will want to look at this.’ A spokesman for VisitBritain, the trading name for the British Tourist Authority, said: ‘Last year, for every pound of public investment, the BTA delivered – equating to nearly £1billion of additional spending.

‘Salaries and travel costs support the delivery of national economic growth at a time of uncertainty.

‘All costs are independently reviewed, benchmarked and audited and judged against organisational performance.’

t.kelly@dailymail.co.uk

 

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