TV licence frozen for six years
By politics.co.uk staff
The TV licence has been frozen for the next six years, under new plans to tighten up the budget of the corporation.
The move, which will be confirmed during the comprehensive spending review this afternoon, would also see the BBC take on the cost of the World Service, which is currently funded by the Foreign Office.
The corporation will also fund Welsh language TV channel, S4C.
But it seems to have escaped plans forcing it to pay for free TV-licences for the over-75s, a potentially crippling addition to the corporation’s books that would have taken the effective cuts to 25% over four years.
If the plans turn out to be accurate, they now amount to 16% in six years.
Shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper suggested the World Service plans had been rushed, however.
“It is alarming that only 24 hours before the spending review, the funding of the World Service has been completely up in the air,” she said.
“Although editorially independent, the World Service is a key component of UK diplomacy and does important work promoting British values and open debate across the world.
“Jettisoning it from the Foreign Office at this late stage, without serious consultation or a strategy for its future, is cavalier and short-termist.”
