Dear Constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the future funding proposals for the BBC following the announcement on Monday (17 January), from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary made a statement on the funding of the BBC.

On 16 January, she tweeted that her next announcement regarding the BBC licence fee would be the last, and that it was time to discuss and debate new ways of funding the BBC.

The current licence fee agreement is guaranteed until 31 December 2027 and the current cost of a licence is £159 per year. The licence fee is a legal requirement for anyone watching live television on any channel or online TV service or for anyone downloading or watching BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer.

Addressing the House of Commons, the DCMS Secretary announced the freezing of the licence fee until April 2024, followed by its rising in line with inflation until the end of the agreement. Additionally, the Government intends to more than double the borrowing limit of the BBC’s commercial arm to £750 million to allow it to access private finance, and to review the long-term funding model of the BBC, investigating the future of a mandatory licence fee with criminal penalties.

The BBC creates great quality programming as well as championing new music. It is at the cutting edge of harnessing the digital age. In my view, the licence fee deal must be fair to fee payers while ensuring the BBC can do what it does best. Of course, it must change with the times and review its output and reach, but it is a well-loved and trusted British treasure, and the envy of the world.

Although the Government claims this freeze is to ease the cost-of-living crisis, I believe bigger concerns are the huge increases in energy and household bills and the Government’s £3,000-a-year tax increase.

I fear the Government does not know the value of the licence fee. It must explain how the BBC will continue valued services that would not be commercially viable, such as local journalism, growing the creative industries nationwide, BBC World Service and its global soft power, and the BBC’s children’s educational programming.

This is not the way in which the future of the BBC, the cornerstone of our world-leading creative industries, should be determined, and I will continue to call for action to protect it.

I will follow this matter closely.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP