Tories would use digital savings to cut the licence fee

THE next Tory government would slash the BBC licence fee as part of a wider efficiency drive, David Cameron declared today.

The Conservative leader said that savings generated by the digital switchover in 2012 should be handed back to the public by reducing the £139.50 a year fee.

Mr Cameron, a former manager at ITV firm Carlton, insisted that he did not want to scrap the licence fee but warned that there would be a shake-up in the way the corporation operated.

He said the Brand-Ross affair had proved that "the BBC has lost touch with the values of the people who support it through the licence fee".

Under a deal agreed by former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, the annual licence is set to rise gradually to £151.50 by 2012.

The BBC is spending about £800millon on switching the country from analogue signals to digital. That cash will be freed up after 2012.