Dorries faces Cabinet battle over future of BBC funding
Nadine Dorries faces a Cabinet battle after signalling that the BBC licence fee will be ripped up and replaced with a new funding model after 2027.
Theukculturesecretarysaid the compulsory £159-a-year charge is completely outdated andinthecomingmonthsministers would be “looking very seriously about how we fund the BBC”.
The Government will set up a review to examine an alternative funding model.
Decisions about a replacement will be taken “well ahead” of the corporation’s charter renewal at the end of 2027, she told The Spectator.
Ms Dorries said she was also considering how media regulator Ofcom could “hold the BBC to account”.
Unveiling a Broadcasting White Paper which promised to “usher in a new golden age for British TV and radio”, Ms Dorries restated her conviction that the fiveyear licence fee settlement she imposed on the BBC in January, which froze the charge for the first two years, will be the last.
Announcing a “review of the licence fee funding model ahead of the next Charter period,” the White Paper warned that, without any change, viewers would have to pay “significantly” more in the future, to cover the deficit left by the number of households now choosing not to pay for a licence – around one million have cancelled over two years.
Options for replacing the current system include linking the fee to council tax. Wealthier households would pay more, satisfying critics who say the fee is a “regressive” tax.
There could be a household levy, paid alongside other utilities bills. A solution favoured by former culture secretary John Whittingdale is to fund the BBC’S core services from a Treasury grant, with viewers paying a Netflix-style subscription “top-up” for entertainment and sport.
But Ms Dorries faces Cabinet opposition over a radical licence fee overhaul. She walked back comments in January that the fee would be axed after resistance from colleagues.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss expressed concern over the lack of consultation preceding Ms Dorries’ statement.
Mr Sunak is likely to be wary of any funding of the BBC direct from the Treasury, which would also raise concerns over the broadcaster’s ability to be independent of government.
However, Ms Dorries has the backing of Downing Street and the Prime Minister’s policy
chief Andrew Griffith for replacing the licence fee.
Number 10 believes the charge is increasingly unsustainable as more viewers migrate online, while Ms Dorries believes the corporation is
too London-centric and dominated by “elitist” metropolitan values.
With more people watching programmes on phones, tablets, games consoles and smart TVS and competition for viewers
and advertising revenue intensifying, radical change is needed to allow public service broadcasters to compete, she said.