Community Radio Licences

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Friday 28th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

First, Madam Deputy Speaker, may I say what a great pleasure and privilege it is to have you in the Chair for this debate today? I believe it is the first time I have made a full speech with you in the Chair, and it is a great honour to see you in your place.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of the MKFM radio station in my constituency and the difficulties it is having in obtaining a permanent FM broadcasting licence from Ofcom. Before I move on to the specifics of the issue, I will set out MKFM’s role in the provision of radio stations in the Milton Keynes area. Milton Keynes, like anywhere else in the country, has access to all the national radio stations. I believe that radio is becoming an increasingly important medium in transmitting news, entertainment and thought-provoking programmes. I personally probably spend more time listening to the radio these days than watching television. Whether I am listening to the “Today” programme or my favourite John Suchet Classic FM programme, it is a great source of information and pleasure.

In addition to the national stations, Milton Keynes is fortunate to have two local radio stations—BBC Three Counties Radio and Heart, which happens to be based in Milton Keynes. These provide a valuable local service, but there is a gap in the market for a specific Milton Keynes radio station. BBC Three Counties and Heart do a very good job reporting local news, stories and campaigns, and they engage enormously with the local community. For example, when my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster) and I organised a jobs fair last year, Heart was able to help by advertising it on its station and providing other practical support at the fair. BBC Three Counties regularly has me on to talk about particular local stories, and it does a very good job representing the local area.

However, because of the trends in radio broadcasting, neither of those stations is specifically for Milton Keynes. Cost pressures and other commercial issues mean that they have to cover a wider area than just Milton Keynes. Heart used to be called Horizon, and initially it was just for the Milton Keynes area, but now it includes the surrounding counties. The same goes for BBC Three Counties. As its name suggests, it has never been just for the Milton Keynes area, but it used to have a specific Milton Keynes news output. In changes made a couple of years ago, the specific Milton Keynes service was lost, and the station is now broadcast throughout the three counties.

I do not in any way wish to diminish the importance of those stations and the role they play in Milton Keynes, but I do believe there is room, in addition to the national and local stations, for a very specific Milton Keynes-focused radio station, and that is where MKFM comes in. It has been broadcasting since 2011. It is on the internet—online—all the time. On a number of occasions, it has been able to broadcast on FM for one-month segments, but it has not yet been able to acquire a permanent licence. It also broadcasts on DAB, but that is a problem as well; I will turn to that in a moment.

In the two or three years for which MKFM has been broadcasting, it has quickly built up an impressive reputation as a real champion of the local community. In a new town such as Milton Keynes, where we do not have as long a history of an established community as other places, it is particularly important to have local champions like a community radio station to give support to all the different activities, events and campaigns that go on in the area. During the relatively short time the station has been broadcasting, it has received great testimonials from local organisations. I have letters from the citizens advice bureaux, the Milton Keynes Dons sports and education trust, the food bank, Milton Keynes council and local charities, such as the Henry Allen Appeal and Hope for Hollie. They all greatly endorse MKFM’s role in championing their causes and its engagement with the local community.

When I go out and about in my constituency to all the sports events, summer carnivals and charity appeals—you name it—MKFM is there, not just reporting what is happening, but giving a bit of pizzazz and excitement to the particular event. It is becoming a cherished addition to the local community in Milton Keynes.

The problem with not being on FM is that the station is restricted in who it can broadcast to. It has had five one-month trials on an FM frequency under the Ofcom procedures and that has been enormously successful, but just when it gets traction in building up an expanded listenership, the trial comes to an end and it is not able to sustain it.

As I have said, the station is now broadcasting on DAB, which is an important step forward, but it is not ideal. It has a cost implication. I am told by MKFM that the transmission cost is in the region of £50,000 a year, which is a significant sum for a community radio station to bear. Moreover, not everyone has a DAB radio. According to the figures I have—the Minister may have more up-to-date and accurate figures—only about 50% of the population have access to a DAB radio. The Minister may recall a debate last year in which a number of colleagues, who were very keen to get the names of their local stations on the record and for them to be broadcast on FM, had concerns about the digital switchover process, but that is a matter for another day.

MKFM is absolutely convinced that in order for it to fulfil its potential it needs a permanent FM licence. I understand that the process is not simple or straightforward. The spectrum does not have an abundance of spare slots that can just be handed out to anyone. In advance of this debate I received a very useful briefing from Ofcom in which it explained the technical reasons why the spectrum is crowded, that it can award new licences only in particular circumstances, and that it does not want to cause interference to other stations. I understand all that and accept that Ofcom has a relatively limited budget to process applications for new licences.

MKFM’s situation, however, is particularly problematic, because Ofcom’s timetable to allocate new licences to such stations has changed. MKFM’s business plan and strategy were based on a timetable published in 2011, which was in place until last December. In that timetable, the south-east of England, in which Milton Keynes falls, was the last of seven areas from which applications would be invited in the first half of this year. Last year, however, the timetable changed and now nine blocks of applications have to be considered, the south-east being the ninth. The timetable has also been pushed back to the second half of this year. The reason for that was twofold: first, a decision was made to include applications from community radio stations in Guernsey, and secondly, applications were invited for stations wishing to broadcast on the AM band.

The six-month delay is likely to be compounded by growing evidence that it is taking longer for licences to be assessed and approved. In the first and second tranches of the timetable, it took an average of three to four months from an application being received to a decision being made, but the third and fourth tranches are now taking nearly a year. Given those two factors, MKFM’s bid will be one to two years later than it anticipated, which will cause it significant difficulties for its business strategy.

Why was it necessary to put Guernsey in front of the south-east of England in the timetable? I have absolutely nothing against Guernsey. I am sure that it is a lovely place. I have not yet had the opportunity to visit it, but I hope to do so one day. The Bailiwick of Guernsey has a population of 66,000 and is already served by two dedicated local radio stations—the BBC station and the commercial Island FM. I am sure that they are excellent stations that provide very good local coverage, but I am not sure why there is a pressing demand for community radio stations in addition to the two island-wide ones. Milton Keynes has a population of 250,000, and we do not have a dedicated community radio station with a permanent FM licence. Will the Minister comment on why there was a sudden change in priorities? Why have applications for AM broadcasting been considered ahead of the assessment of bids for the south-east of England? I would appreciate some feedback on why that has happened.

I appreciate the constraints under which Ofcom has to operate, and neither I nor MKFM want to moan about this problem; I sought this debate to try to secure the Minister’s consideration of some potential solutions. I would be grateful if he took them away and used his good offices to discuss them with Ofcom.

The first suggestion is simply to restore the south-east’s position in the original timetable. There may be perfectly good reasons why that cannot happen, but if so, they are not apparent either to me or to MKFM. The second possibility is to consider all the remaining regions for FM licence applications—including the west midlands, the east midlands, the east of England and the south-east—as one bloc, and to identify which parts of that larger area have the greatest need for community radio licences.

If the argument against that option is that Ofcom does not have the financial or organisational capacity to assess a much larger geographic region, I would make a third suggestion—that Milton Keynes is moved out of the south-east region, where there is already considerable congestion on the airwaves, to the midlands and east of England bloc. I wish I had an audiovisual display to show a map of the south-east of England. Milton Keynes is right up in the top north-west corner of the curious south-east region, which swoops right down past London to include the Isle of Wight and round to Kent and the Isle of Thanet.

It has always been incongruous that Milton Keynes is part of the south-east when we naturally look to Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire as our main economic partners. Indeed, such a change is happening in other areas of public and commercial life. For the boundaries of the local enterprise partnership, Milton Keynes is partners with Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and surrounding areas. Many of the reconfigurations in the NHS have made Milton Keynes look north and east, rather than to the rest of the south-east. I am sure that it would be relatively simple to transfer Milton Keynes to the midlands and east of England bloc from the south-east, where there are great pressures on the existing spectrum.

Finally, if that option is not practical and the primary obstacle is Ofcom’s organisational and financial capacity to consider Milton Keynes more quickly, MKFM has suggested that it would be willing to pay a premium application fee, perhaps in the region of £10,000. If it and other stations in a similar situation did that, it might allow Ofcom to take on additional staff to assess the applications in a more timely fashion.

I hope that the Minister will give those problems and possible solutions serious consideration. MKFM has quickly established itself as a cherished community radio station. It complements BBC Three Counties, Heart and the national broadcasters. It is a huge asset in the Milton Keynes area and I would be hugely disappointed if its ambition to broadcast permanently on an FM frequency was further thwarted.