Resources Ltd back on the agenda

The union is on standby to step up the campaign against BBC Resources Ltd, after reports that the Board of Governors may resume consideration of the plan, postponed because of the May General election, at their October meeting.

For a variety of reasons, including the difficulties of obtaining ministerial approval at a time when the Government seemed likely to change, the proposals for Resources Ltd were put into abeyance earlier this year, but not before the Governors voted to support "in principle" the management's broad strategy.

From the time that incorporation of Resources was first mooted, the BBC's unions have rejected the management's arguments for the plan, and the ground has shifted in the unions' favour over the last few months. Not only is the Labour Government expected to scrutinise the proposals more thoroughly than their predecessors, but recent developments in European Union legislation are also helping.

Union lawyers have confirmed that a recent change to the European Treaty of Rome, which strengthens the commitment of member governments to their public service broadcasters, definitely free the BBC to sell its services in the commercial marketplace.

This legal advice blows a hole in the last argument put up by BBC Resources management to justify the directorate's conversion into a Limited Company, which was that commercial activity by the BBC would be viewed by the EU as an illegitimate use of public subsidy to compete with facilities suppliers in the open market.

BECTU has been in regular contact with the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport since the election, and Labour politicians have been fully briefed on the weaknesses of the BBC's case for Resources Ltd.