MP DEMANDS TV LICENCE DISCOUNT

In an exchange in the Commons, Mr Baker forced an admission from the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Shaun Woodward, that only a quarter of households in the Lewes constituency are currently able to receive digital terrestrial television.

He then went on to call for a discount for the 75 per cent of local people who are only able to access half of the channels that, as licence payers, they are entitled to.

The Meridian region, which includes the Lewes constituency, will be one of the last regions in the UK to be switched over to digital under the proposed roll-out plan published by the Government.

Local residents will have to wait until 2011/12 before digital terrestrial becomes widely available.

Said Mr Baker: 'I have been raising this matter with the government for years now and they appear to have made disappointingly little progress on the matter.

'It is unfair that my constituents pay the same licence fee as everyone else, but only get half the service from the BBC.

'This is why I have called on the Minister to cut the licence fee for local residents unable to receive digital terrestrial.'