MPs savage BBC’s licence fee U-turn
MPs have accused BBC bosses of reneging on a pledge to provide free TV licences to millions of pensioners.
Members of the cross-party Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee yesterday said director-general Tony Hall and chairman Sir David Clementi had defaulted on their part of the deal for over-75s to have free licences.
From June 2020, the benefit will be restricted to pensioners claiming Pension Credit, meaning around 3.7 million elderly people will be forced to fork out £154.50 a year to keep watching television.
The BBC claims it cannot afford to keep offering free licences to all, but in an often bad-tempered meeting, Lord Hall said he “refutes and resents” the idea the broadcaster is not honouring its 2015 agreement with the Government. He said the BBC had followed instructions “to the letter” and added: “We took on the policy unwillingly but had no choice.
“The first I knew about the decision was when then-Culture Secretary JohnWhittingdale called to say he had lost the argument and that the BBC would have to take over free TV licences for over-75s.
“At which point I said, ‘Well, that’s nuclear’.And I then laid out the consequences of that decision.”
But Conservative MP Julian Knight accused Lord Hall of “whingeing” and suggested he had misjudged his negotiations with politicians at the time.
Tory committee chairman Damian Collins suggested that other government agreements – such as an increase in the licence
fee and plugging a loophole to let people watch BBC iPlayer without a TV licence – were worth “about £700million”.
He added: “It seems you’re net gainers from this process.”
The corporation says keeping TV licences free for all over75s will cost £745million – a fifth of its annual budget – by 2021/22.
But the decision to effectively start meanstesting for free licences has prompted a public outcry, with politicians, celebrities and campaigners for the elderly all slamming the move. Yesterday, Age
UK handed in 36,000 letters to Conservative Central Office imploring the next prime minister to stick to the manifesto promise to keep TV licences free for the over-75s.
Labour MP Ian Lucas was among those urging Lord Hall to reconsider the decision after it emerged that one of his constituents in Wrexham – 93-year-old Normandy veteran Ted Edwards – will be among the pensioners missing out.
The committee will now produce a report making recommendations for what it believes should happen next.
The Government must respond to it within two months – but ministers do not have to act on the findings.
A government statement said it was “very disappointed” with the BBC’s decision to change licence fee arrangements.