[Keith]

The BBC has sadly been starved of funding, not just by TVL freezes, but also through people increasingly taking up the alternatives which don't require one.

Yes, the issue needs to be addressed, but a concept of "They would just have to pay and that would be it" is not a policy a government of any flavour would ever adopt.

I'd beg to differ with the government not adopting that concept, even if they might not be so keen to admit that concept is the case with lot of other taxes and bills.

For reference in 2022 the licence fee revenue was £3.8 billion, whilst the number of households was estimated at 28.2 million. If the BBC was funded via the council tax, then using a rough calculation the annual fee could potentially be reduced to around £135 per year (total revenue / no. of households), which equates to about £11.25 per month. (Obviously the actual amount would be slightly higher by the time it was introduced and inflation factored in.)

I could imagine the government selling it as a lower annual charge for households, compared to the current £159. Yes, the amount would still be more than the cost of not having a TV licence, but since when have politicians not used selective statistics to suit their own narrative.