The BBC’s implementation of Across the UK – Report Summary

Summary

Through its Across the UK programme, the BBC plans to strengthen its delivery for all the UK by moving a further £700 million of its spending outside London between March 2021 and March 2028, with three phases of implementation. However, it has begun implementing its programme without a clear plan and could not readily explain the expected impact and benefits for licence fee payers.

We are concerned the BBC was too confident of what it can deliver in the future. It did not meet all of its targets for phase one of the programme up to March 2023 and offered little evidence of a coherent approach to delivery, or of effective tracking and measurement. The BBC emphasised that its plans are ambitious, and we heard that it had performed well in some areas, such as moving 58% of TV expenditure outside London, against its target of 60% by December 2027. However, where it is behind schedule, such as audio production and apprenticeships, it did not have a plan to get back on track. For example, it had moved just 1 percentage point of its audio production expenditure outside London since March 2020, with the BBC reporting that it is spending 41% outside London as at February 2024, against its target of 50% by March 2028.

The BBC’s plans for evaluating the success of Across the UK are incomplete and, after three years of implementation, it did not have an overall approach in place for assessing the impact of the programme. Its intention to start evaluating performance from 2025, during phase three of Across the UK, is too late for it to change course if needed. In evaluating, it will be important for the BBC to distinguish between new jobs that are created in the regions compared to those simply being moved outside London. The nature of the local hubs the BBC is creating in, for example, Birmingham, Salford, Cardiff and Glasgow, and its engagement with local authorities and stakeholders present risks to achieving the full benefits of Across the UK. This included the BBC not fully grasping the significance of the other bodies and communities it needed to work effectively with and which are crucial to the success of Across the UK. The BBC has yet to develop contingencies for the real risk that some local partners, on whom the success of its programme is reliant, may pull out.