“Fewer Gary Linekers and more local journalists” — MPs round on plans to cut BBC local radio services
In-depth: Behind Local News watched MPs debate the BBC’s plans to slash local radio services. If the BBC were watching too, it would have made for bleak viewing — but there remains little sign of the organisation changing tack:
The BBC should look at diverting money away from it’s top-paid stars to help reduce the cuts to local radio, the House of Commons has been told.
The Corporation came under attack from all sides during a debate on its plans to slash spending on local radio, instead diverting money into local online news, a move which has put it on collision course with established local online news services.
The BBC’s controversial plans would see all 39 local radio stations only broadcast local output between 6am and 2pm, with stations merging into larger regions for shows after 2pm and at weekends.
The BBC insists it has listened to feedback, pointing to the fact it has modified its plans already. However, these modifications are mainly around which radio stations will share afternoon, evening and weekend shows, rather than substantial changes to the overall proposals.
In some cases, the same local radio shows would serve populations the size of Denmark, and cover areas roughly 75% the size of Belgium, MPs were told.
During the debate last week, MPs called on the BBC to rethink its plans, accusing it of abandoning a section of society — older listeners — who don’t use digital services.
They were also scathing at the way the BBC had treated local radio presenters and journalists, amid claims that time-served, well-known names had been given 60 seconds to save their jobs during a consultation process which has been going on for months.
Sir Mike Penning, Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead, who led the debate. told the Commons: “What will the BBC gain from these proposals? The BBC would say it has to move with the modern world and go digital, but most of its listeners cannot do that.
“Is the BBC saving huge amounts of money? I was told off by a colleague in this House for naming Gary Lineker gets £1.2 million a year from the BBC, but the people we are referring to [local radio journalists losing their jobs] are not on that sort of salary. This would be loose change out of the salaries being paid to the high-cost presenters.”
Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely also drew attention to big salaries paid out by the BBC: “For me, local radio is entirely the wrong thing to cut and the wrong place to start a reorganisation of services, especially when we consider two of the BBC’s major costs.
“First, people always complain about its bloated management structures. There seem to be people on six-figure salaries whose purpose at the BBC is unclear, at a time when we pay junior BBC reporters just over £30,000 a year. The BBC has not got its priorities right in any way, shape or form.
“Rich people earn between £400,000 and £1 million a year from our national broadcaster. If they want to earn more money working for Sky or ITV, that is fine — they are commercial stations and can choose the market rate they want. I do not think that BBC audiences understand why some of those people are paid so much money when those who work for the BBC’s heart and soul — its local radio — struggle to get by on modest salaries.
“ It seems me that one purpose of paying the licence fee is not to fund Gary Lineker’s lifestyle, but to pay for a few more £30,000 or £40,000 journalists from Southampton or the Isle of Wight to do a good job covering what happens in our area.”
Strangford, Northern Ireland DUP MP Jim Shannon said: “Gary Lineker gets £1.35 million a year, Zoe Ball gets £980,000, Alan Shearer gets £450,000, and Stephen Nolan gets £415,000.
“At the same time, 36 staff at the local Foyle Radio will lose their jobs as a result of these cuts, which will save £2.3 million, with further redundancies expected next year. The combined audience for BBC Radio Foyle and BBC Radio Ulster is almost 470,000 people a week — equivalent to 30% of Northern Ireland’s population. That is significant and should not be ignored, yet we find it is.
“Clearly the likes of “The Nolan Show” will draw bigger audiences than Radio Foyle, but I believe there is a duty of care to the smaller programmes, to ensure that local people have a local voice and not simply a Belfast voice.
“It seems that the light of the BBC has dimmed to such an extent that we will hear only the narrative of the big hitters, such as Stephen Nolan or William Crawley in Northern Ireland, or Gary Lineker. I agree with local BBC staff that cuts should first be made to the pay brackets of senior management — those stars that I have been referring to — before entire programming is cut.”
“It is not a gameshow; this is about livelihoods and careers” — MPs round on BBC’s ‘cruel’ selection process
Sir Mike added: “The way that the human resources people and the hierarchy at the BBC have handled this is appalling for a public body. It is so wrong that people are petrified, and have been for months, about whether they have a job. They are being told, “If you don’t accept the job we are going to offer you, you will be out the door.”
MPs rounded on the plans, hit out at the way staff were being treated and also called into question regulator Ofcom’s involvement in the proposals.
Sir Mike said: “Ofcom has responsibility here. More than 600,000 people took part in the consultation that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport held on Channel 4, whereas Ofcom’s review of the BBC operating licence had 12 people respond to it. I cannot believe that Ofcom believes that that is representation in a consultation on the future of the BBC.”
Hull Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson said: “I want to say something about BBC staff and to pay tribute to some of the employees in Radio Humberside who have already left. That includes David Burns — Burnsy — a popular morning presenter who has gone already.
“BBC staff have felt humiliated, patronised and bullied by this process. Well-known local presenters are going, but we are apparently bringing in presenters from other regions, which just seems ridiculous.
“The BBC points to a 30% fall in income since 2010, but the BBC is a very large organisation. It can save on management costs, for example, including management costs within the £117 million BBC local radio budget.
“We want the BBC to halt this calamity now — to open up its finances to independent scrutiny, see what efficiencies can be found to protect services and develop digital, consult local radio staff on their ideas, hold a proper public consultation alongside an impact assessment, and invite axed local radio staff such as Burnsy to return.
“If the BBC thinks again and halts these cuts, we will work together as parliamentarians to protect local radio and to support the BBC. I hope that W1A is listening to this, and that it is not just SW1A listening to this debate. I know that constituents in Hull who live in HU5, HU6 and HU7, and in other postcodes across Humberside, feel at the moment that that they are losing a friend with these cuts to the BBC.”
“A crass, insensitive process “
York Central Labour MP Rachael Maskell said: “The process determined that those journalists had to make demo tapes and talk about themselves. How utterly humiliating. Some just walked and we lost brilliant people from BBC Radio York’s family, notably Jonathan Cowap and Adam Tomlinson. I pay tribute to them today and trust that they will be back once this charade is behind us. Whoever thought up such a crass, insensitive process has no idea how to run a people-centred service. It is not a gameshow; this is about livelihoods and careers. It is not good enough for the BBC to just press on. It has got to stop.
“Ofcom has to act. It is not a bystander but a regulator. With more people becoming isolated and 9 million people experiencing loneliness, having a friend — that reliable voice just down the road — matters.
“My goodness, it matters. Through covid, we learned what many people live through every day of their lives. That local connection is the thing that makes us belong. It gives us value, identity and hope. That has now been stolen.”
Damaging local journalism’s fragile eco-system
The BBC intends to instead shift investment into local online news services, angering existing local news publishers who say the BBC, with its guaranteed income and ability to publish without needing to sell advertising, will place their independent services at risk.
Bosses at the BBC say local news funding has been protected at a time when deep cuts are being made to other services, heightening further the publishers’ sense that an uneven playing field is being created by the Corporation.
Barnsley MP Stephanie Peacock said: “Local journalism is a fragile ecosystem. The BBC plans to increase digital output in place of local radio, but that will put undue pressure on the system, as I have said in this House before, by providing unwanted competition to local papers and other media outlets that are struggling to stay afloat. That is not to mention the significant impact on local democracy: local radio currently holds councillors, MPs and national politicians to account in a way that no other outlet can.”
People want news that is local to them
Helen Morgan, Lib Dem MP for North Shropshire, said the decision to merge stations for much of the day would alienate listeners. She said: “People who live in a rural area like North Shropshire want to know what is happening in North Shropshire.
“As much as they bear no ill will to the people of Stoke or Wolverhampton, they are not that interested in what is going on there. The lifeblood of every fête, charitable event or local football match is that the organisers can get on local radio and tell people that those events are happening.”
“The BBC is presiding over a toxic culture”
Emma Lewell-Buck, Labour MP for South Shields, said: “The familiar local voices on the radio every day gave comfort, brought reassurance, and connected people in a way that no other medium was able to do, especially when different parts of the country were under different covid regulations.
“Under the BBC’s proposals, I just cannot imagine how radio from 2 pm onwards coming from a different part of the country could have accurately conveyed, at that time, the right information for all the areas that it was expected to cover.
“Disgracefully, the BBC started these cuts during the pandemic, asking more than 100 staff to take voluntary redundancy, stripping back the schedules, forcing all shows to have four-hour slots with solo presenters, and axing specialist programmes.
“That set the scene for homogenising practice at all local stations, making it easier for the BBC to make the cuts that it wants to make now and merging everything from 2 pm onwards. For the nation’s flagship broadcaster to introduce those changes without consulting the fee-paying public is pretty galling.”
Referring to the way staff had been treated, Emma said: “The director general claimed to have empathy with staff, yet MPs have heard how disgracefully staff have been treated, how he is presiding over a toxic culture of fear and paranoia and how the reselection interviews related to the cuts in local radio have been embroiled in workplace bullying.”
Jamie Stone, Lib Dem MP for Sutherland and Easter Ross, added: “This cutback will fundamentally undermine proper local democracy in remote places such as the far north of Scotland.”
South Swindon MP Sir Robert Buckland added: “In the reforms, the BBC has paid lip service to consultation, and the way in which staff are being treated is unacceptable. This is, I am afraid, another example of poor decision making, poor communication and poor leadership from the BBC. We expect better of it. In the delivery of these botched reforms, it is failing in its duty.”
“No meaningful consultation”
Bootle, Merseyside, Labour MP Peter Dowd said: “Under the banner of “digital first”, 39 local radio stations will have their content dramatically reduced, as we have all heard. Local radio will become regional and national, in many cases, after 2 pm. Now, I am not saying that we do not need digital — I have nothing against digitalisation — but it should not come at the cost of local radio. It is as simple as that.
“Local radio has 5.7 million listeners every week, yet no meaningful consultation has taken place, so I have written to the director general, along with many Merseyside colleagues, to say that we are dismayed about the changes that will see weekend breakfast shows shared with Lancashire and Cumbria, which have very different audiences.
“The original plan also envisaged sharing with Radio Manchester, but it has been decided that Radio Manchester will be able to keep its breakfast show, despite it having fewer listeners than Radio Merseyside. Why? What is the rationale? I do not know, and I do not think they know.”
Grimsby Conservative MP Lia Nici said: “BBC local radio is unique. In the multifarious and busy media landscape we have today, it is very rare to be able to say that. Nobody else in the market provides what BBC local radio does. We have BBC local TV, but it is regional. It provides a very good service, but the difference between TV and radio is that in radio — again, this is unique in the media landscape these days — we can have long-form, detailed conversations. We do not have to think about the number of characters we use.
“We are not asked to answer a question in 15 seconds. We can actually have proper, grown-up conversations, and we can be challenged as public servants, whether that is us in this place or councillors. It is the lifeblood of impartial local broadcasting, and we do not get that anywhere else.”
Worcester Tory Robin Walker said the changes would make local radio largely irrelevant in the afternoons.
He said: “The BBC says it has listened on some of its regional proposals and changes, but from a Worcestershire MP’s perspective, it has actually made things worse. It was originally proposing to put together programming from Hereford and Worcester with programming from Coventry and Warwickshire.
“That, from a Worcestershire perspective, is difficult — it would not necessarily be as local as it was — but vaguely understandable. The BBC has changed that now, and has taken away the idea of combining us with Coventry and Warwickshire. It is now suggesting combining Hereford and Worcester with Shropshire, Staffordshire and Stoke.
My constituents do not feel that the news in Stoke is terribly relevant to them, and I am sure my Stoke colleagues would feel likewise.”
‘Bullied and intimiated’
Wansbeck Labour MP Ian Lavery praised BBC Radio Newcastle, saying: “It is good to listen to fantastic journalists with skills and knowledge of their own area telling us what is happening in politics. It is great to be interviewed by people who understand us and who press us on the local issues. It is great in the morning to get a phone call from Alfie Joey from Radio Newcastle asking if I will come on and talk about this, that and the other. It is essential; it is what people want.
“We have some fantastic reporters and fantastic journalists, and the way they are being tret, bullied and intimidated by the BBC is not acceptable.”
Peter Aldous, Conservative MP for Waveney, said: “If these proposals go through, at certain times Radio Suffolk will share content not only with Radio Norfolk, but with Radio Cambridgeshire, Three Counties Radio, which covers Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and Radio Northampton and Radio Essex. The total population of all those counties is higher than that of Denmark and they cover an area three quarters the size of Belgium.
“I urge the BBC to pause and review its plans, and I ask the Government to liaise closely with the BBC to ensure that its proposals fit in with and complement a properly co-ordinated local media strategy.”
Totnes, Devon, Tory Anthony Mangall said: “This debate is not just about the presenters but about the extraordinary production teams, who work tirelessly to ensure that we are up to date with local information.
“I cannot express how important that is in enabling us to do our jobs well and accurately, and to be challenged and scrutinised. Representing the issues that people care about in our respective constituencies in this place is made all the easier by the existence of fantastic local radio services.
“How does a Devon and Cornwall service ensure that we can report on local events, local news, local problems and local businesses that are suffering in myriad ways? It does not provide what we are asking for, and it certainly does not provide the service that people are asking for?
“We have all spoken about it together and we are utterly appalled by the BBC’s behaviour. The BBC must modernise, of course. No one says that it should not change, and there are ways in which it should, but it must retain its heart and soul. To me, its heart and soul is local radio.”
Failing London, too
Labour London MP John McDonnell said: “It is depressing for most of us who are advocates of public sector broadcasting to have to come back to this debate so often. There is genuine anxiety among many staff that we are seeing a whittling away of local radio services so that eventually BBC management will prove the point that it wants to prove: that the services are no longer supported and therefore unnecessary. It will then close them down altogether. That seems to be the strategy: to make the service unsustainable, cut by cut.
“Radio London produces 133 hours a week. That is being cut to 85 hours. That represents a cut from 79% to 51% in our local output. Industrial action has meant that we have won some gains in London. We are keeping the London afternoon show from 2 pm to 6 pm, but the rest will be combined with Kent, Surrey and Sussex. To be honest, that is not good enough. As everyone is saying, local radio should be truly local, which means it should be locally produced.”
“Not just broadcasting”
Essex Conservative MP Anna Firth said much more than radio broadcasting was being lost.
She said: “We have talked a lot about local radio being a lifeline and a comfort, which it undoubtedly is, but our local radio, BBC Radio Essex, also does so much work for charity and so much community building.
“It is about not just the fantastic local radio shows, the interviews and getting people on, but the extra things it does. One highlight of my past 16 months in this place has been the Christmas lights being switched on in Southend, and that was hosted by BBC Radio Essex.
“Thousands of people were out enjoying themselves and having a fantastic evening as a result of its hard work. Our local radio hosts the “Make a Difference” awards, where it celebrates community heroes all around the country. It also does its everyday work in raising money for incredible charities, such as those we have in Southend, including the Endometriosis Foundation, Prost8 UK and the unbelievably amazing, award-winning Music Man project, among so many more.”
MPs voted unanimously to back the following motion: “That this House calls on the BBC to reconsider its decision to reduce local news output from local radio journalism which will have a negative impact on communities across the UK, reduce access to local news, information and entertainment and silence local voices.”
