A company produces a direct labour budget (a variable cost) for January, on the basis of an expected 5,000 hours working, showing a forecast wage bill of £60,000. The actual hours worked in January were 5,500 hours and the actual wage bill was £64,000. If the company also produced a flexed budget for January showing costs for a 110% level of activity, by how much did the actual wage bill differ from the wage cost shown in the flexed budget at that level?

(a) £4,000 adverse variance

(b) £2,000 adverse variance

(c) £2,000 favourable variance

(d) £6,000 favourable variance