Chris Bryant warns over BBC cuts

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/01/chris-bryant-bbc-cuts-conservative-government

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The Conservative government is at risk of ruining Britain’s “strongest cultural institution” by demanding more cuts from the BBC, according to shadow culture secretary Chris Bryant.

Speaking ahead of a BBC announcement on Thursday expected to lead to hundreds of job losses, the Labour MP said: “What this brings home is that this is about jobs. The danger is that we are losing decent jobs in the creative industries, one of the fastest growing parts of our economy.”

The Guardian revealed on Tuesday that the BBC was preparing to announce “painful” cuts to help fill a £150m funding shortfall in 2016-17. With the BBC trying to protect its remaining television channels and radio stations, it is expected that job cuts could run into the high hundreds or more, from its 18,000 workforce. The shortfall has emerged because an increasing number of people have become aware of a loophole that allows them not to pay the licence fee if they only watch catch-up television.

Related: BBC aims to become 'leaner and simpler' with new round of job cuts

“All those job cuts are not just going to be managers no one has heard of,” said Bryant, “but programme-makers up and down the country”.

The proposed job cuts come as the government prepares to unveil a green paper on future funding and size of the BBC in the coming weeks led by John Whittingdale, the Conservative culture secretary.

Bryant warned his Tory counterpart not to ruin the corporation. He said: “The BBC has to live within its means, but my anxiety is that these cuts are necessary now, even before the Tories and Jonny Scissorhands get hold of it.”

The Treasury is understood to be considering whether it can insist that the BBC foots the bill for the £700m-a-year charge of providing free television for the over-75s. If non-payment of the £145.50-a-year licence fee is decriminalised – an idea which has cross-party support – the BBC could end up with a further £200m bill.

The speed of change with people declaring they do not watch live television has been faster than expected by the BBC.

With exactly 18 months of the current 10-year charter period remaining, Bryant urged the government to publish its proposals quickly: “We’ve got to have some clarity,” he said, suggesting that the green paper expected before parliamentary recess on 21 July “should be out already”.

Bryant said: “I would have thought that a good Conservative would want to support our strongest cultural institution, but it seems that some of them are obsessed with the market failure idea.”

Whittingdale, who for 10 years was chair of the culture select committee, has previously suggested that the BBC should not be showing popular entertainment shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, an idea that provoked scorn from Bryant. “Whittingdale is a man who doubts they should have Strictly, but Strictly makes money,” he said.

“Viewers and listeners don’t want repeats all the time [on the BBC]. They want new and ambitious programmes.”

Under the last charter review process the licence fee was diverted to help pay for super-fast broadband, speeds which allows viewers to watch catch-up TV on their computer screens. Bryant called the top-slicing “a bigger irony” given the fact that it was helping viewers avoid paying for the licence fee.

Bryant has previously said that calls for licence fee non-payment to be decriminalised ahead of BBC charter renewal risk “mutilating” the corporation.