BBC licence fee ‘worse than poll tax’, says Tory MP

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/29/bbc-licence-fee-poll-tax-tory-john-whittingdale

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The BBC licence fee is “worse than the poll tax” with non-payment “almost certain” to be decriminalised, according to the chair of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee.

Conservative MP John Whittingdale said the £145.50 charge was unsustainable in the long term, but added that he expected it to survive the current round of charter renewal negotiations due to begin in earnest next year.

Whittingdale said: “It is a poll tax, it’s actually worse than the poll tax because with the poll tax, if you were on a very low income, you got a considerable subsidy, you only paid 20%.

“With the licence fee there is no means-tested assistance whatsoever, it doesn’t matter how poor you are, you still have to pay £145.50 and go to prison if you don’t pay it, and a lot of people go to prison every year because they can’t afford the fines imposed on them.”

Whittingdale said he thought the licence fee would survive for the next 10 years, but needed modifying to take into account on-demand viewing via the BBC’s iPlayer.

He suggested the BBC should switch to a stripped back licence fee with a reduced number of services, allowing people to choose to subscribe to pay channels if they choose.

“I don’t think there is any serious possibility of the licence fee going this charter renewal,” he said. “I think in the longer term we are potentially looking at reducing at least a proportion of the licence fee that is compulsory and introducing an element of choice.”

Whittingdale added: “In the long term it is unsustainable. When I say unsustainable in the long term, I’m talking about over 20, 50 years … I don’t like the idea of a licence fee, I would prefer to link it perhaps to some other tax, and I think decriminalisation is almost certain to happen.

“Most people already accept that the licence fee as it is currently structured needs some tweaking to deal with anomalies, like the fact on catch-up you don’t need a licence fee, whereas live streaming you do. People’s viewing habits have changed and we need to reflect that.

“Then there is the question of whether or not it should remain a flat poll tax collected through some fairly draconian measures, whether it should still be criminally enforceable. I have been looking at other countries, how they do it, there is quite an attractive option of linking it to a specific household tax like the council tax, or maybe utilities. That’s what happens in a number of European countries.”

Whittingdale’s committee has just come to the end of hearing evidence from senior industry executives and observers, including BBC director general Tony Hall and new BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead, about the future of the corporation.

The MP said he was “disappointed” by Fairhead’s response to the question of the future of the licence fee, when she said it did not need fixing.“That is the BBC mindset. At the end of the day it won’t be the trust and it won’t be the director general who decides.”

Talking at a Bafta Question Time event in central London on Monday night, Whittingdale said: “I don’t think the British public has ever had it put to them, for instance, instead of paying £145.50, what if you paid £100 and still go to the majority of BBC shows? You present them with a package, that’s what nobody has ever researched.

“At the moment the research says, would you like to pay £145.50 and get all the BBC or pay nothing and not have the BBC. That is a completely false choice.”