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Local Media

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr McCrea. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland) on securing this important debate. The subject of local media is one that is dear to all hon. Members' hearts. My hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (John Stevenson) mentioned the cuts to BBC local radio, as part of the BBC's plan to deliver quality first. A debate on that subject in Westminster Hall attracted some 50 hon. Members. We also had a debate in the main Chamber. I was pleased that the BBC Trust asked the BBC to think again about the proposals for local radio. We will all have experienced the ways in which it plays an important role in our communities. Local newspapers play a vital role in supporting local democracy. All of us know and love our local newspapers, no matter how badly they behave towards us, because we recognise their constitutional importance. I was hoping to make the point that only Conservative Members had turned up to the debate today and to send a signal to all local newspapers that they should therefore skew their editorial policies in that fashion. It grieves me, therefore, to have to acknowledge the presence of the right hon. Member for Oxford East (Mr Smith) who is displaying the customary diligence for which he is well known, thus skewering my opportunity to make that particular point. We take local newspapers seriously. One of the first things that the Government did after the election was to deregulate cross-media ownership rules at the local level to give individual local newspapers and local newspaper groups the opportunity to own radio stations and vice versa. It was recognised by the Government that consumers use a variety of platforms, be it the local newspaper, the radio or the internet. By allowing these different platforms to unite, there is more opportunity to create a critical mass to ensure that newspapers can be well financed in the future. There is no doubt that newspapers will have to adapt to a changing world of technology. As my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle pointed out, it has been a triple whammy; I sometimes refer to it as a perfect storm. What has hit newspapers the hardest is the move of classified advertising to the internet. Such advertising was a source of guaranteed revenue for them. That was the most important first move that we made. I am also pleased to say that a second move, which was made by the Department for Communities and Local Government, was to consult urgently on council news sheets. That consultation took place in 2010, and a new publicity code was issued on 31 March 2011, which makes it clear that councils have to think very carefully about how they use council tax payers' money to fund what is known colloquially as propaganda on the rates. Those council free sheets should now be published quarterly and be accountable to local council tax payers. I am pleased to say that many local councils have now taken the view that they should publish their free sheets within their local newspapers. Therefore, as well as limiting the amount of money they spend on those information documents, they are also ensuring that the money effectively gets channelled through the local newspaper by being part of the local newspaper. In the House, we have the opportunity to publish information about our activities. I hope that all hon. Members will think carefully about using their local newspapers to that end. The second issue raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage was the current consultation on traffic regulation. Having already spoken on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government, let me now speak on behalf of the Department for Transport. Local councils spend around £20 million a year on advertising traffic regulation orders in local newspapers. I should add the caveat that local newspaper groups, such as the Newspaper Society, do not necessarily agree that that is the sum that is spent. I am sure that everyone in the House agrees with the efficient use of council tax payers' money. Saving money by reducing advertising costs would be a good thing. My hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey), who is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, might say that the money would be better spent on libraries—I was giving evidence to her on libraries yesterday. Incidentally, I was pleased that Desmond Clarke, to whom I referred yesterday, is now sending my hon. Friend regular e-mails, updating her on library policy, but I digress. A consultation was issued at the end of January 2012 by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Norman Baker). It has already generated 100 letters from Members. I am pleased that those letters went to the Department for Transport and not to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. I am also pleased to say that my hon. Friend will be meeting the Newspaper Society next week to discuss the issues. Clearly, there is a balance to be struck in achieving value for money for the council tax payer, but I am pleased that the Department for Transport has recognised, through the consultation process, the importance of statutory notices to a free and thriving local newspaper press. Obviously, I cannot prejudge the outcome of that consultation, but I know that hon. Members will be pleased that many of their colleagues have made representations on behalf of their local newspapers to the Department for Transport and that the Department is actively engaged in consultation. I have covered both the Government's action on the deregulation of cross-media ownership and our action to reduce the impact of council newspapers on local newspapers, and I have acknowledged the importance of statutory notices to local newspapers. Let me turn to a number of other issues that will provide opportunities for local media. My hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle referred to local television; he hoped that it would start to cover genuinely local news rather than regional and national news. The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport shares that view; he has a vision to implement local television, which he feels is a media platform that has been neglected in this country. We often cite America as a country where there is a plethora of local television news stations but many of our European counterparts also have very local television stations, so there is no reason why we cannot have a thriving and effective local television sector, despite the small size of this island compared with, say, the US. To the end of promoting local television, Ofcom has conducted extensive consultation. Spectrum has been identified that will allow local television to broadcast. The most effective sites for a local television station to get up and running in the short to medium term have been identified. A licensing process is under way, and money has been secured through a partnership with the BBC to secure the establishment of local television stations and to guarantee the purchase of BBC content.