EXCLUSIVE: BBC license fee set for another HIKE as a Labour Government could trigger inflation rise
The BBC charter states that the license fee will rise annually in line with inflation
Getty/ PA
The BBC license fee may be increased again if inflation were to rise under a Labour government.
A TV license is required to watch or record programmes on a TV, computer or other devices as they're broadcast, and to watch BBC programmes on iPlayer in the UK.
An expert has warned that under Labour leadership, 'prices will rise and inflation will go back up again,' and as a result licensing costs - which are aligned to inflation will also be hiked.
As part of the BBC charter, the previous government said that license fees would rise in line with inflation until 2027.
The BBC raised its license fee in April this year from £159 a year to £169.50
PAA statement on the TV Licensing website said: "The Government decided that the licence fee would rise annually in line with inflation from 1 April 2024 for the remaining four years of the Charter period. The BBC’s current Charter runs until 2027."
Since April, the TV license fee has risen from £159 a year to £169.50 based on the inflation figure for September 2023.
The decision followed two years of the price freeze amid a raft of cost-cutting measures at the television company.
In 2023, the BBC's total income from the license fee was £3.74bn, which accounted for 65 per cent of its income of £5.73bn.
The BBC states that in exchange for the license fee money, they provide a public service broadcasting that is "impartial, high-quality and distinctive."
Joanna Marcong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Any rise in the cost of the license fee is unacceptable given the coercion involved.
Dr Roger Gewolb said that under a Labour government 'inflation will go back up again'
GB NEWS"Brits are forced to pay the TV tax under the threat of possible imprisonment, despite the archaic and backwards nature of this funding system, which long ago lost relevance.
"The next government should scrap the licence fee and force the Beeb to stand on its own two feet."
Dr Roger J Gewolb, Strategic Advisor to Business and Government, believes inflation will go back up under a Labour government.
He argues Labour "and their so-called financial geniuses" failed to comment on the level of interest rates under a Conservative government and "there is nothing in their manifesto" about it.
Gewolb believes that the Bank of England has been "grievously incompetent" in handling monetary policy but Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have backed them.
"The surprising thing is that Labour could have used this as a weapon to beat the Tories badly amongst all the other weapons they have tried to use but they didn’t," Gewolb argued.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said although inflation rates went down, the cost of living crisis is not over
Getty
He continued: "Thus, Labour’s poor grasp of economics and monetary policy will no doubt allow this dreadful state of affairs to continue and even increase as they spend more and more money.
"Their undoubted profligate spending will mean more money being printed, more borrowing, and more interest unnecessarily paid by the Bank of England to the banks, depleting the national treasury further and putting pressure on virtually all sectors of the economy with prices rising and inflation going back up again."
LATEST NEWS:
Although inflation fell to 2 per cent in May, returning to the official target rate for the first time in almost three years, the shadow chancellor warned the cost of living crisis is not over.
Rachel Reeves said inflation under the Conservatives "left working people worse off."
She explained that although inflation has reduced, there are still pressures on family finances as prices have risen in shops, mortgage bills are higher and taxes are "at a 70-year high."
Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has pledged to scrap the license fee of the "institutionally biased" BBC.
He said the license fee was "taxation without representation" and that people should not be forced to fund the "wasteful" BBC.
The Labour Party commented: "The BBC must continue as a universal, publicly owned, publicly funded public service broadcaster, with funding that is sufficient and sustainable.
"To make sure the BBC carries on informing, educating and entertaining for generations to come it needs to change with the times and be fair to licence fee payers, especially in a Tory cost-of-living crisis.
"We will work constructively with the BBC to make sure its funding model is fit for the 21st century.”