A government committee and a trade body have bashed the BBC’s plans to expand into local news, urging it to take a second look at its strategy.
Under the broadcaster’s ‘Across the UK’ proposals, it intends to reallocate funding from its established local radio stations to bolster new online sites dedicated to local news coverage.
But a House of Commons report that scrutinised the implementation of the scheme, published today, highlighted a number of concerns.
The Committee said: “[The BBC] has begun implementing its programme without a clear plan and could not readily explain the expected impact and benefits for licence fee payers.
“We are concerned the BBC was too confident of what it can deliver in the future. It did not meet all of its targets for phase one of the programme up to March 2023 and offered little evidence of a coherent approach to delivery, or of effective tracking and measurement.”
It recommended a thorough revision and “refresh” of the BBC’s plans for Across the UK, which focuses on delivering tangible benefits and impacts.
As part of its initiative, the BBC is shifting £700m of its expenditure outside London by March 2028.
Critics argue the move will unfairly squeeze commercial publications serving smaller communities, putting them under pressure to compete with the corporation, which benefits from a taxpayer-funded license.
This subsidy allows it to produce ad-free content, something which Google and other search engines prioritise.
News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith, who has previously been vocal on this issue, said: “The Public Accounts Committee is absolutely right to criticise the BBC for its plans to cut much-loved local radio services and instead push unnecessarily into digital local news services.
“Communities are already very well served with local news by commercial publishers who employ thousands of local journalists up and down the land, covering the courts and councils, publishing agenda-setting scoops, and campaigning on behalf of their readers.
“By forcing local publishers to compete with the might of the licence fee, the BBC’s misguided plans to ramp up its own local news provision will put all this at risk, ultimately leaving us with the BBC as the sole provider of local news in this country,” he explained.
Meredith also agreed with the Committee’s suggestion that the BBC be made to take another look at its plans.
City A.M. has approached the BBC for comment.