All aboard the gravy train

A quango set up to bring investment into the West Midlands has spent £75,000 of taxpayers' money letting its staff fly business class, it was revealed today.

Advantage West Midlands also spent £31,000 on first class rail travel but claimed today the costs were justified so that staff can "arrive fresh" for meetings.

Figures obtained by the Express & Star reveal that AWM spent a total of £352,000 on travel and hotel costs for its staff between 2006 and 2009.

As well as the cost of business class flights, more than £31,000 was spent on first class train travel.

A further £60,172.77 was spent between 2007 and 2009 on economy class flights and £135,123.95 on standard class rail.

It spent £3,909.22 on taxis between 2006 and 2009 and spent £11,225.37 hiring cars. And hotel accommodation cost £111,053.68 between April 2006 and April 2009. The expense was today criticised as "astronomical" by lobby group the Taxpayers' Alliance.

Alliance member Fiona McEvoy said: "These figures are all the more astonishing as we're still in a recession.

"It really says a lot about the spendthrift attitude of these public sector executives that they'll brazenly fly business class and stay in the best hotels without a thought for the taxpayer."

But AWM spokesman Will Harpur today defended the luxury travel, saying: "Board members and staff travel on business to promote the region and attract foreign investment.

"Business class flights are only permitted on long haul flights outside Europe, in order to help the traveller to arrive as fresh and fit as possible for work and to allow them to work effectively during long journeys.

"First class rail travel is permitted where necessary, again in order to allow travellers to work effectively during journeys."