THE man in charge of the BBC's 'great move north' has emerged as one of the corporation's five highest-paid executives.

BBC North director Peter Salmon has a salary between £370,000 and £400,000.

He is overseeing the biggest transfer of staff and departments out of London in the BBC's history.

The move, to be completed by 2012, will mean the MediaCity site in Salford Quays housing about 2,500 BBC staff, including 1,500 relocated from the capital.

Documents published by the BBC in response to Freedom of Information requests and pressure for more clarity show only three executives are definitely earning more than Mr Salmon.

Director general Mark Thompson was on a basic salary of £647,000 a year in 2007/08, while his deputy Mark Byford earned a basic £459,000.

Jana Bennett, director of Vision, the BBC's integrated multimedia broadcast and production group, was on £406,000.

John Smith, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, was listed as earning £380,000 - although his salary, unlike the others, is fully funded by the corporation's commercial businesses.

Burnley-born Mr Salmon is a former director of programmes at ITV Granada in Manchester.

He has also been a controller of BBC1 and director of BBC Sport.

He has described the move to MediaCity as `the first big broadcasting venture of a new decade' which could `define the way the BBC works for a generation'.

The executives' salaries were released as the BBC also published expenses claims by its most senior staff.

Neither the salaries nor the expenses of high-paid stars - described by the BBC as `talent' - were disclosed.

The documents revealed Mr Thompson claimed more than £2,236.90 of licence fee-payers' money to fly to his family home from holiday in Sicily in the wake of the Andrew Sachs obscene phone calls row involving presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.

The money was approved by the chairman of the BBC's audit committee.

Jana Bennett, meanwhile, claimed £500 after her handbag was stolen on official business. She also ran up a bill for more than £1,900 on flowers, given as 'talent gifts' to stars and presenters over the periods covered by the newly-published expenses, which run from 2004 to 2009. For the tax year 2006/07 alone, her floral claims totalled £662.97, including one bill for £100 for a bouquet given to Jonathan Ross.