Fury at BBC chief’s call for home tax to replace licence
A PROPOSAL to replace the TV licence fee with a compulsory “household tax” has been slammed by MPs and campaigners.
It follows a suggestion by the BBC’s outgoing director general who said a means-tested approach, where the rich pay more, might make more sense than the current system.
Lord Tony Hall of Birkenhead, who is set to step down today, also suggested that a potential annual levy could be collected alongside existing household bills such as council tax or broadband.
It would mean the BBC would have to spend less money on tracking down evaders.
The licence fee in its present form is guaranteed until 2027 but the Government has indicated that a new system of funding, suitable for the digital era, will be required after then.
Some critics have favoured a
Netflix-style where people BBC services.
Two Conservative backbenchers have drafted private member’s bills calling for the BBC to be privatised and face more stringent oversight of its impartiality, after a series of recent controversies.
There are also subscription service, can opt in or out of calls for nonpayment of the be decriminalised.
Suggesting his own alternative in his exit interview with The Media Show on Radio 4, Lord Hall said: “I think finding ways in which the licence fee can be charged progressively, so those who can afford to pay more and those who can’t afford to pay less, should be looked at.
“Should it be collected in a way on household bills, council tax bills, to cut down the cost?” He added: “If licence fee to you want to have something good, a public service available to all, then that has to be funded by all, not by subscription or behind some paywall.”
Older people’s group Silver Voices ridiculed the suggestion.
Director Dennis Reed said: “It sounds like he’s a bit demob happy to be honest. It’s just completely leftfield. I see absolutely no possibility of this taking place.
“I don’t know what he’s basing this on, maybe he’s had a drink or two too many at his leaving party.”
Philip Davies, a member of the Parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, was also critical of Lord Hall’s suggestions.
The Conservative MP said: “Lord Hall is a subsidy junkie who has spent his whole life relying on subsidies.
“Rather than just wanting to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, Lord Hall and the BBC need to accept the inevitability of the end of public handouts and having to make their own income in the commercial world.
“I suspect they will need new people to be able to do that.” in the studio again, our aim is to get back to The Archers as it was before the pandemic, but it will be step by gradual step.”
The socially distanced studio recordings, at The Mailbox, Birmingham, will feature up to three actors – previous recordings had up to 25.
Radio 4 said that “for the time being there will continue to be remote recording, alongside studio recording, so in the coming weeks episodes... will feature both scenes recorded in the studio and scenes recorded remotely with actors in their homes”.
Controller Mohit Bakaya told Radio 4 programme Feedback: “I accept some people have not enjoyed the monologues and I’m sorry about that. I’m sure if there are people who have drifted away, I hope they drift back.”