Blow for millions of families as BBC licence fee is set to be hiked to more than £180 a YEAR
The BBC licence fee is to be hiked above £180 next year in a further blow for millions of households struggling with rising costs.
TV viewers already pay an annual rate of £174.50, which is on course to increase by almost £7 in the spring.
Next year's licence fee is due to be based on the annual inflation reading for this September, which stood at 3.8 per cent. As a result, the current fee will increase to more than £181.
The hike, which is likely to be confirmed later this month, will see the £175 mark passed two years earlier than expected.
It will be linked to inflation until at least 2027 after the BBC and the Tories struck a deal in 2022.
When the agreement was reached, the licence fee cost £159 and was projected to cost less than £175 by its final year.
However, high inflation has driven up the amount TV viewers are charged. In November last year, the Government announced it would rise from £169.50 to £174.50 from April.
The corporation raked in almost £4billion from the levy last year. But the future of the licence fee has come under scrutiny amid a sharp decline in the number of people watching traditional TV channels as viewers continue to turn to streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video.
The BBC licence fee is to be hiked above £180 next year in a further blow for millions of households struggling with rising costs (stock)
The number of licences bought decreased from 24.1 million to 23.8 million last year, with the drop hitting the BBC's income in real terms.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has insisted she will uphold the current agreement but wants to change how the BBC is funded in the future. She called for a 'mixed-funding model' which would combine the licence fee with other streams of revenue.
It comes as the broadcaster has faced criticism for splurging more than £200,000 of taxpayers' money on transportation, hotels bookings that were never used and also for private healthcare.
A BBC spokesman said: 'As a 24 hour global media organisation, a significant amount of travel is inevitable and the nature of our work means plans can often change at short notice.
'We are always mindful of costs, we have strict policies in place to help keep expenses to a minimum, and wherever possible, we will recover the costs.'
