Peers warn against turning the BBC into a growth engine
Key Points
- Lords committee wrote to Lisa Nandy on 18 September ahead of the BBC Charter White Paper
- Peers said a standalone economic growth purpose has no obvious benefit and risks mission drift
- BBC already contributes £6.7 billion to the UK economy and supports 79,000 jobs
- New Charter duties must come with funding as the BBC cuts £500 million and up to 2,000 roles
- Government urged to set minimum terms for BBC content on YouTube and legislate if needed
The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee told Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy on Friday (18 September) that giving the BBC a new public purpose to drive economic growth has no obvious benefit.
The committee set out its position in a letter to Nandy ahead of the Government’s BBC Charter Review White Paper, which is due later in 2026.
The Government’s Green Paper, published in December 2025, proposed a standalone purpose for the BBC “to drive economic growth across the UK and support the creative economy”.
The committee said the BBC’s contribution to growth already flows from its existing public service role and its investment in the creative industries. It added that a standalone growth purpose could distort commissioning priorities and pull the broadcaster away from its public service objectives.
“We can see no obvious benefit in a specific requirement for the BBC to drive economic growth across the UK,” said Baroness Keeley, Chair of the Communications and Digital Committee.
“Including an explicit economic growth public purpose in the new Charter risks both mission drift and skewing commissioning towards more generic, more exportable content.”
The BBC’s own analysis puts its contribution to the UK economy at £6.7 billion in 2024/25, supporting around 79,000 jobs. The broadcaster invested £1.5 billion in original television content in 2025/26 and worked with 310 independent production companies across the UK.
The committee said the next Charter should instead build on the spirit of the BBC’s current fourth public purpose, which puts public value first, while spelling out more clearly the broadcaster’s role in developing the creative economy. It said the Charter should not introduce a separate purpose focused on broader economic growth.
Witnesses to the inquiry raised the same concern. Jack Gamble, director at Campaign for the Arts, said the existing purpose has the relationship “the right way round”, with economic benefits flowing from serving audiences rather than the other way around.
BBC chair Samir Shah told the committee the broadcaster already does “a great deal” to drive the creative economy and “does not need” a further public purpose to keep doing so. The BBC had backed the proposal in its own Green Paper response earlier in the year.
Money must follow any new duties
The committee said the BBC is already under significant financial pressure and cannot take on new responsibilities without the resources to deliver them. The broadcaster announced in April 2026 that it needed to find £500 million in savings over the next two to three years, with 1,800 to 2,000 roles set to go.
The Government is considering handing the BBC expanded duties in areas including regional growth, skills development, technology and media literacy. The committee said any new or expanded responsibilities must come with adequate funding or a clear acknowledgement that the BBC will have to do less elsewhere.
It called on the Government to be “bold, confident and unapologetic” in setting out the BBC’s long-term financial sustainability in the White Paper. The number of TV licences purchased in the year to 31 March 2026 fell by 539,000, according to the BBC’s annual report.
YouTube and the reach-versus-control trade-off
The letter also addressed how the BBC gets its content in front of audiences as viewing shifts away from broadcast television. Broadcast TV reached 92% of people in the UK each week in 2015, compared with 54% in 2025, according to Ofcom.
The committee said the BBC will increasingly need to distribute content through third-party platforms such as YouTube to reach younger viewers. It added that this comes at the cost of control over how content is presented, access to audience data and the BBC’s direct relationship with its audience.
The committee said the Government should set clear minimum expectations for agreements between public service broadcasters and video-sharing platforms on prominence, data access, accountability and fair value. It said the Government should be prepared to legislate if voluntary arrangements fail to deliver.
The committee also welcomed talks between the BBC and Channel 4 about opening iPlayer to other public service broadcasters. It said any such arrangement must work as a genuine partnership rather than simply extending a BBC-controlled platform to other providers.
The committee asked the Government to respond to its recommendations within one month.
