BBC licence fees for viewers aged over 75

sir – Allison Pearson (Comment, June 12) questions the need to close a number of BBC services if we were to be able to afford the £745million‑a‑year cost of free licences for all over‑75s. She suggests that cutting pay for talent, senior managers and staff “would be a good place to start”.

It is incorrect to suggest that only a few of our stars would receive similar levels of pay in the commercial sector, as is the notion that we behave like a private company. Even if we stopped employing every presenter earning more than £150,000, that would save less than £20million. If no senior manager were paid over £150,000 that would save only £5million.

Ms Pearson calculates that it would take 11,360 pensioners to pay just one of our top salaries. Only one presenter is paid this amount. The director‑ general’s salary is £450,000 – not £550,000 as stated in the article.

The National Audit Office confirmed in a recent report that the BBC pays its executive directors less than market rates. We’ve also cut spend on senior managers by £38million since 2010.

An independent report found last year that the BBC is among the most efficient 25 per cent of regulated and non‑profit organisations in Britain. Ninety‑four per cent of the money we control goes on the programmes and services that audiences love. Over the last Charter period, we made £1.6billion in annual savings. To say that we have acted like a “profligate global corporation” is wrong.

This has not been an easy decision to make. We have put fairness at the heart of our decision: fairness to the poorest pensioners and to all licence‑fee payers. If we had continued with the current scheme, its rising cost would have meant closures of services that we know older audiences in particular love, use, and value every day.

Clare Sumner

Director, BBC Policy

London W1