CHIEFS' HUGE PENSIONS.

TWO BBC bosses could get the biggest pensions in the public sector, it was claimed yesterday.

A newspaper alleged deputy director Mark Byford would get a pension of pounds 7.7million and creative director Alan Yentob pounds 6.3m.

Until now it was thought Bank of England governor Mervyn King had the largest public-sector pension, at pounds 5.7m.

The figures, by financial services group Hargreaves Lansdown, were denied by the BBC. The corporation stated earlier would mean an annual pension of pounds 229,500 Byford this year that Mr Byford, 51, is in line to get a pension of around pounds 2.7m, but this figure will rise if he continues to work until he is 65 on a salary of pounds 459,000.

A pounds 7.7m pension would mean Mr Byford would receive an annual pension of pounds 229,500. If Mr Yentob, 62, were to have a pounds 6.3m pension he would be paid pounds 216,667 annually.

The BBC said yesterday: "We strongly dispute this story, and the figures used are a distortion of the facts. Any suggestion that licence fee payers would have to pay these sums is simply untrue."

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: "Taxpayers can't afford lavish pensions for executives who are already extremely well paid."

pounds 7.7m would mean an annual pension of pounds 229,500 for Byford

pounds 6.3m would mean an annual pension of pounds 216,667 for Yentob