This week, Bectu submitted its formal response to the BBC’s consultation on the future of free licence fees for over-75s, arguing that responsibility for this welfare benefit must rest with the government.
The consultation has exposed the financial scale of the poison chalice passed to the Corporation’s Board. Following the government’s withdrawal of funding for free licences from 2020, the BBC faces an invidious choice between restricting free licences to homes entitled to pension credit, scrapping the concession entirely or footing a £745million annual bill that will cause irreversible harm to existing services – and suffocate the BBC’s ability to grow and adapt to a fast-changing broadcasting landscape.
While the Government’s Digital Economy Act 2017 supposedly allows the BBC to make changes to the benefit, including scrapping it entirely, retaining free licences was a Conservative Party manifesto pledge. The BBC’s “freedom” to choose is tangled in the political mire.
The cost of maintaining the status quo for free licences for over-75s will be roughly one fifth of the BBC’s licence fee income and more than its entire spend on radio. As a union that represents thousands of workers at the Corporation, we know the devastating impact this will have – on quality and variety of output; on the BBC’s public service offering, and on our members.
Like other respected public services – from local councils and schools to the NHS – we believe the BBC should be defended and properly funded. We know that the Corporation is not infallible, and it’s right that it is held to high standards. But it has undoubtedly felt the sharp end of the government’s austerity agenda – already being made to slash more than £1.5billion from its budgets and facing further reductions of more than £40million by 2022. Overheads have been reduced to just six percent, with the rest of the BBC’s income spent on services for audiences. The BBC itself has warned that services will inevitably suffer if cuts go any deeper
The BBC is rightly envied and respected around the world for the quality of its programming – from quality journalism, to cutting edge drama such as the Bodyguard and prime time entertainment like Strictly. In the age of “fake news”, the importance of an independent public service broadcaster to our democracy has never been greater. And the BBC’s output remains popular – with around 90 percent of the population enjoying BBC services at least once a week.
But we need to be honest about the competitive climate in which the Corporation now operates, where streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon deliver programming on demand and more under-30s choose when, how and where they watch TV. Far from being strong-armed into making further cuts, it’s essential that the BBC has the capacity to continue to grow, adapt and invest in new technology if it is to meet the demands and viewing habits of different audiences while safeguarding its public service offering.
That’s why, far from stifling the BBC’s progress we should be pressing the government to take back their funding responsibilities – and we must urgently start talking about how we can go further to futureproof the organisation for generations to come.
Philippa Childs is head of Bectu, the UK’s media and entertainment union