Community Radio (Amendment) Order 2015

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2015 Grand Committee

The purpose of the order is to give community radio stations more scope to raise funding from commercial sources while protecting the characteristics of community radio. The changes are quite modest. There are no changes to the basic requirement that community stations must be run by not-for-profit organisations for social gain and we have retained protections for smaller independent commercial radio stations. We believe that there will be minimal impacts on small commercial stations, but we will keep the position under review. The changes also allow the longest established community stations, which are valued by their communities, to apply for a further five-year renewal of their licences—something strongly welcomed by community radio stations. I commend the order to your Lordships.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that extremely clear introduction to the issue. By and large, we welcome the order. The Minister is quite right to say that it is modest. I would like to press him on the fact that it perhaps needs to be less modest.

I come at this partly from having been an activist in the 1980s on community radio, where I worked with the sociologist Michael Young, who believed that there was great scope for community-controlled radio stations in tower blocks with common aerials. He was technically right: getting a licence from the Home Office, as was the case then, was impossible. It took a very long time from then, until about 10 or 15 years ago, for community radio to become truly accepted.

Community radio is a great thing and we should be helping it to happen. It is clear that Article 5(5) is the important one: it gives provision for holders of community radio licences to extend their licences twice; provision to allow one organisation to be the holder of a local digital television programme licence, as well as a community radio licence; and provision to allow certain community radio stations to receive income from the takings of advertising and sponsorship of their programme output, when they were previously prevented from doing so. I remember when this legislation went through your Lordships’ House; I thought it was restrictive then and I think it is still restrictive.

I point the noble Lord to the Government’s notes—the Explanatory Memorandum. Paragraph 7.2 states:

“Notwithstanding this apparent success”—

of community radio stations under the current regime—

“many community radio stations are struggling to build a long term sustainable business model”.

The question that we need to ask is: will the £15,000 limit help to make community radio stations more sustainable? Was there an examination of the business case for this? How will that help them?

The Community Media Association believes that this is a modest step forward but not necessarily one that will provide community radio stations with sufficient. Why is there a limit of £15,000 and why set the level at 50% for community radio stations earning revenues through advertising and sponsorship? Back in 2003, the Everitt report recommended that there should be greater flexibility and I wonder why the Government have not picked up those recommendations and run with them. Those are my questions to the Minister but, as I say, they are within the context of supporting the order as a further step in recognising the important role that community radio plays in our local communities. In Bradford, we have Sunrise Radio, which is absolutely wonderful and brilliant.