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Higher-off households ought to pay extra for the BBC, a former chairman has instructed, as he branded the present licence price “regressive”.
Below the present system, Richard Sharp stated he was involved these on decrease incomes paid the identical as richer folks for the general public service broadcaster.
He stated the controversial flat-rate levy could possibly be changed by a cost linked to broadband payments or council tax.
The federal government is whether or not to interchange the £159-a-year licence price with a brand new funding mannequin after 2027.
The associated fee is because of begin rising once more with inflation subsequent April, after a two-year freeze.
Mr Sharp, a Tory donor, quit as BBC chairman earlier this yr after a report discovered he breached guidelines by failing to reveal the function he performed in serving to then-prime minister Boris Johnson safe an £800,000 mortgage.
Questioning the equity of the licence price, he advised The Every day Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast: “I might be in favour of a type of a compulsory cost – at the moment the licence price.
“There’s one concern which is it is regressive, which can have to be addressed.”
Stating poorer households paid the identical value, he added: “You may take a look at fashions around the globe, there is a broadband tax, there is a family tax and there is the licence price. Change is disruptive from transferring from one mechanism that works to a different.”
Labour has beforehand indicated it could contemplate means-testing the price if it gained energy.
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Girls disproportionately prosecuted
Mr Sharp was additionally involved the best way the licence price was enforced by door-stepping inspectors meant ladies had been disproportionately more likely to be prosecuted for non-payment.
Failing to pay the licence price is a criminal offense.
Virtually 1,000 folks every week – seven out of 10 of whom are ladies – are prosecuted for evasion.
He stated: “The 2 challenges are clearly it is regressive and likewise that the gathering course of can fall tougher on ladies as a result of ladies typically reply the door.”
Mr Sharp stated either side of the Home of Commons “broadly help the BBC”, and that any adjustments to its funding mannequin needs to be debated in parliament.
However he warned towards decriminalising the licence price, saying it may result in extra folks being introduced earlier than the civil courts over non-payment.
He stated: “The sanction itself drives behaviour. Should you go to civil litigation, you really can improve the quantity of litigation that takes place. So it is not as apparent as you assume.
“On account of folks paying the licence price, you get a standard good, which is you get an unbelievable worth for what persons are really paying on a family foundation.”
The federal government whether or not to interchange the £159-a-year licence price, which funds the BBC
Within the wake of his personal expertise as chairman, Mr Sharp additionally stated he would advise somebody going for the job to “be sure you and your loved ones know what you are stepping into” and warned it made them “a goal”.
He stated: “It is a sufficiently essential establishment that who ever is the chair is susceptible.”
The difficulty of freelancers and impartiality on the BBC was additionally “one thing that wanted to be addressed”, he stated, after the controversy sparked by Gary Lineker when he compared the government’s language used to promote its asylum plans to 1930s Germany.
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