Don't abandon Birmingham, Gisela Stuart tells BBC
Birmingham MP Gisela Stuart is to confront the BBC over its presence in the region amid fears the West Midlands is being eclipsed by the North-west as a media production centre.
The BBC’s decision to close the Birmingham-based Asian Network, and the planned migration of large swathes of BBC production from London to Manchester, have raised concerns the West Midlands is fast becoming a blind spot in terms of visibility in the national broadcast media.
Ms Stuart, the Labour MP for Edgbaston, said the region was also losing out economically through not having a strong BBC presence.
She described the BBC as an “anchor” which provides a stimulus for commercial media firms to set up in the region, without which the area risks losing jobs and expertise.
“If the BBC is supported by the licence fee, it has a regional responsibility,” she said. “My argument would be that it provides a critical mass for this kind of creative media.
“We need a strong BBC presence and that provides an anchor and everything else grows around that anchor.
“You require a strong BBC to have a strong independent sector, if you weaken the BBC everything around it will weaken.”
Her comments come after commercial media firms – including Smooth Radio owner GMG Radio – announced plans to scale down their presence in Birmingham.
Ms Stuart said she would be writing to the BBC to ask why the Midlands has no commissioning power and no voice at director level, in contrast with the North of England, which has BBC North director Peter Salmon.
The BBC responded by saying its commitment to the region was “undiminished” and production in the region was in “excellent health”.
“Birmingham continues to be a substantial production base and is central to our vision of a new BBC for all the UK,” a spokesman for the broadcaster said.
“The BBC’s commitment to the West Midlands is undiminished and we aim to strengthen and affirm our commitment to Birmingham as a centre of excellence in both network and regional programming.
“With new programmes like Factual’s Gears and Tears and Alys’s Edible Garden, a new series of Landgirls on the way and Hustle filming in the city again soon, BBC Birmingham is in excellent health.”
Since the closure of Pebble Mill, the BBC in the West Midlands has been based at the Mailbox in Birmingham city centre, whose output includes The Archers and Countryfile, while the Drama Village in Selly Oak makes daytime soap Doctors.
But according to last year’s figures, just 3.8 per cent of the BBC’s spend on TV programming was in the Midlands, compared to 8.2 per cent in the North and 62.3 per cent in London.
The corporation has targets to increase its out of London network programme spend to 50 per cent by 2016.
Birmingham’s production facilities are vastly overshadowed by the growing strength of the North-west, where the BBC is setting up a large-scale centre in Salford and transferring thousands of jobs up from London.
Around 2,300 jobs will move to the BBC North centre from the sport, children’s, learning, and future media and technology department, plus parts of BBC Radio 5 Live.
Manchester’s growing strength as a media production hub has meant commercial media are also attracted to set up there, often closing down facilities in regions such as the West Midlands.
Smooth Radio West Midlands, along with its counterparts in other areas, is set to close down and become a Manchester-based national station, its owners GMG Media announced earlier this month.
Last year Birmingham-based radio statio Kerrang!, which is owned by Bauer Media, transferred its news production facilities from Birmingham to a hub in Manchester.
