This shoddy decision will haunt Beeb’s fat cat bosses
SO the deed is done. But will the BBC pay a price for going ahead with its plan to end free TV licences for most over-75s after a twomonth stay of execution because of the Covid-19 pandemic?
The Corporation’s panjandrums evidently think they can get away with it. They will reason that, although more than three million households will have to start paying the £157.50 annual licence fee from August 1, some 1.6million of the very poorest pensioners claiming Pension Credit won’t have to fork out.
But, of course, many of the three million households forced to cough up are far from rich. Compared with the BBC’s overpaid stars and lavishly remunerated senior executives, a lot of these elderly pensioners are poor. Paying the licence fee will hurt.
That is why Age UK, which inspired more than 630,000 people to sign a petition against the proposals when they were first announced last year, described the announcement as ‘a kick in the teeth for millions of over-75s who have had a torrid time during this crisis’.
Was there another way? You bet there was. Although it is forever boasting about trimming its sails, the Beeb is a vast, extravagant monster that has grown crazily over the past three decades, spawning new television channels and radio stations and a huge website. Its annual income is a massive £5billion.
MAKINg three million pensioner households pay the licence fee should allow it to bank about a tenth of this amount. If Auntie had really cared about these people, this money could have been found through a serious process of economising.
Just cutting the salaries of hundreds of stars and senior managers earning more than £150,000 by 10 per cent would, by my rough calculations, yield £5million a year. It would be a symbolic step, which showed that despite appearances the ethos of public service broadcasting is still alive.
Much bigger sums could be found by closing down BBC4 (£44million) and Radio 6 Music (£12million). Shaving BBC1’s budget by just 10 per cent would yield £110million, and slimming down BBC2 by the same proportion nearly £40million. Auntie could reverse its idiotic decision to spend £100million on ‘diversity’ over the next three years.
In no time at all, an organisation which chose to put poorer pensioners before its immediate financial needs could save hundreds of millions of pounds if it really set its mind to it. But no such root-and-branch operation has taken place. Let the poor pensioners pay.
I accept that in 2015 the then chancellor, george Osborne, drove a hard bargain when he got the director-general, Tony
Hall, to agree that the Corporation would take responsibility for the £745million annual cost of providing free TV licences for those aged 75 or over.
Lord Hall, who is just about to step down, caved in too easily. One of his predecessors, Mark Thompson, has claimed that he had begun writing a resignation letter when Osborne tried to impose similar costs on the BBC five years earlier.
The fact remains that the Beeb agreed to these terms, and is now acting in a ruthless and self-serving manner. If it did not know that withdrawing free licences will be painful for many pensioners, it wouldn’t have suspended the measure during the pandemic.
In March, Lord Hall agreed in front of a Commons committee that people in their 80s and 90s could be hauled through the courts for not paying their TV licences after the free concession is withdrawn. How will our public service broadcaster with its hundreds of ‘fat cat’ salaries look then?
BBC bosses assume they have won this battle. I believe that, on the contrary, they have exposed themselves to the charge of meanness and selfishness, and that this shoddy decision may come back to haunt them.