VLV to lobby parliament over licence fee

A lobby of Parliament will be held next Tuesday by viewers, listeners, journalists and concerned members of the public in an attempt to persuade the Cabinet to re-consider the proposed licence fee settlement.

The move comes following press reports stating the Treasury would be making a licence fee settlement under the rate of inflation as per the retail price index, currently 3.9%. Yesterday it was revealed that BBC director general Mark Thompson had admitted to staff in an email that such reports were "credible."

Many of the organisations involved in the lobby fear a speculated licence fee rise of just 3% will result declining standards, and the loss of BBC jobs.

John Grogan MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary BBC Group said: "The Cabinet is expected to discuss the licence fee settlement on Thursday January, 11 and the very least that is needed is for them to restore the link with the retail price index established in 1989."

Backed by the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, the National Union of Journalists, the Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union and other civic organisations, the lobby will be held in Committee Room 14 in the House of Commons at 6pm. The meeting will be chaired by Jocelyn Hay CBE, Chairman of the VLV.

Hay said: "Research commissioned by the DCMS during the longest and most detailed consultation yet held on the renewal of the BBC Charter, shows that the majority of licence fee payers would be willing to pay above the retail price index in order to get high quality programmes, content and services from the BBC, with fewer repeats and cheap copycat programming."

"If the new licence fee settlement were to fall short, the BBC would be unable to meet its obligations to licence fee payers and both they and the national interest will suffer,” she added.