Jowell 'to announce licence fee inquiry'

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell will launch an inquiry into the BBC's funding later this week, the Sunday Times reports today.

The announcement is expected on Wednesday when the government unveils its green paper on the BBC. The licence fee will be renewed for a further decade from charter renewal in January 2007, but in return, the corporation will be required to carry more public service broadcasting.

"We won’t have the BBC in the future dumping the worthy stuff on to BBC4 and then saying ‘that’s our public service stuff done’," a source told the newspaper.

Opposition to the fee has almost doubled in the past 14 years, according to BBC research, although some 81% of respondents said they were still willing to pay it.

The fee itself has risen 30% in real terms since 1997 to its current figure of £126.50. Any further increases will be more tightly controlled under the next charter.

The green paper will also give a reprieve to the BBC's board of governors, who were criticised for being "too close to management" in 2003's Hutton fiasco.