Conservatives Plan to End BBC Trust

The BBC Trust would see itself disbanded if a Conservative government came to power in the next general election. The party has announced plans to replace the current trust with a new "BBC Licence Free Payers Trust".

The party believes that the new proposed trust would better represent the interests of the public who currently pay £142.50 per year for the BBC's services in licence fees; the duty that lies within section 23 of the current Royal charter between the BBC and the government.

Commenting for the party, Jeremy Hunt, Shadow culture secretary said that the BBC is "out of touch" with licence fee payers and that, "the trust is flawed by the need for it to be both regulator and cheerleader for the BBC."

He continued, "We haven't made a decision on the timing of [changes in the governance structure] but we do think the structure has failed. We are looking into whether it would be appropriate to rip up the charter in the middle of it or whether one should wait."

Former BBC director general Greg Dyke, who is running a review of the creative industries for the Tories, recently pushed for similar policy approach, with the added option of Ofcom taking on regulation of the BBC.

Dyke described the trust as "unduly slow and bureaucratic", as well as being expensive to run and the source of "inbuilt conflict" at the corporation.

The proposal would also cast serious doubts over current trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons', whose current four year term is only set to end in 2011. Current plans would see his position replaced with a non-executive chairman who would directly work alongside director general, Mark Thompson.

The trust has also seen opposition from the Labour party's culture secretary Ben Bradshaw who described the organisation as not being a "sustainable model in the long term."

However a spokesman for the BBC Trust said: "We are not going to comment on speculation. What matters to audiences is that they receive quality content and services from the BBC. To that end the trust and Sir Michael are getting on with the job of getting the best out of the BBC for licence-fee payers."

(Source Broadcast)