Director general of the BBC reportedly racked up more than £3,000 in central London hotel stays between 2023 and 2024.

Mr Davie, who has a lavish £4million home in , spent over 30 nights in the capital during the last financial year, 26 out of 30 of which were at the same four-star spot, according to the .

The cost of overnight stays, which were shouldered by licence fee payers through the BBC's "central bookings system", were in addition to the £525,000 Mr Davie is paid annually by the broadcaster, the report claims.

The 57-year-old works at Broadcasting House in the West End and lives near Henley-on-Thames, around an hour away by car from central London.

The BBC's chief financial officer Alan Dickson, who earns £310,000 annually, also reportedly spent around 65 nights in hotels around the city in the 2023/24 financial year.

He is understood to have stayed at a hotel in Marble Arch for 12 nights between March and April 2024, totalling around £1,600.

Mr Dickson is based in Glasgow and oversees spending across the country-wide BBC group, reportedly leading the broadcaster to conclude that hotel stays in London were cost-effective.

A BBC source also reportedly suggested that Mr Davie's director general role requires him to stay late to attend business-related events and work early in the morning, making overnight stays an "economical" option.

Licence fee payers currently shell out £169.50 each year, adding up to around £3.6 billion of funding, which goes towards the BBC's programming and services across TV, radio and online.

But last February, Mr Davie told a House of Commons committee that the broadcaster was facing "enormous challenges" and, "like many organisations and businesses", was suffering from "high inflation" and other "additional pressures".

Sir Ian Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, described the spending as "intolerable", pointing to the "astonishing" proximity of the director general's Oxfordshire home to the capital.

"There ought to be a serious inquiry by the BBC internally into the money they haemorrhage through these types of costs," he told the Mail.

"You pay people salaries and you expect them to do things, so as I say, if someone lives within striking distance of London, you would think there would be little or no argument that they would go back home in the evening and get up early and either come in early by train or by car."

A spokesperson for the BBC said: "Like any media organisation, staff are sometimes required to use hotels and we always keep costs to a minimum."