A BBC based on membership: Our proposal to government

Owned by the public: Our proposal for the future of the BBC

The BBC is one of the UK’s most important public institutions. It provides trusted news, shared cultural moments and world-class entertainment. But its future funding and governance are once again under review.

In response to government’s consultation, Co-operatives UK is proposing a bold reform: re-establishing the BBC as a charter corporation with mutual features, owned and accountable to the public it serves. This would strengthen the BBC’s independence from government and political pressure, while giving audiences a stronger role in holding it to account.

At a time when trust in institutions is fragile and misinformation is widespread, the UK should draw on the best traditions of co-operative and mutual governance to secure the BBC for the future.

Our proposal

We propose that BBC continues as a charter corporation, with broadly the same public purpose as now. However, we propose two significant reforms: 

• A perpetual charter without the sunset clauses that periodically hand huge influence to government and politicians
• A charter with mutual features that make the BBC accountable to the fee-paying public rather than to government and politicians 

From licence fee to membership

Mutual features would be:

• Replacing the license fee with a membership fee - Everyone who ‘uses’ the BBC should pay a fee, and everyone who pays a fee becomes a member of the BBC. The membership fee is more explicitly a contribution to collective funding the BBC’s public purpose. It comes with rights to participate in the BBC and hold it to account for delivering on that purpose. Beyond the universal membership fee, there would be further ways for categories of member to contribute financially to the BBC.
• Member Council –  Selected by representative sortition from all members, the Member Council would become the sovereign body of the BBC, replacing government as the ultimate authority the corporation is accountable to. The Council’s role would be to witness and verify the BBC’s independence, impartiality and public benefit. It would hold the Board to account, help make Board appointments and elect a small number of member representatives to the Board. In certain circumstances, it would also have the power to remove Board members and the Chair.
• Member participation – The council will have the power to form member groups based on geography, special interests or particular issues. Members beyond the Council will be offered less formal way to ways to participate in this activity. All members will be provided with a means of raising issues with the Member Council.

These proposals draw on existing practice in the UK and global co-operative and mutual economy, our own research and analysis, and work by the Media Reform Coalition.  

Our proposals would 

• Enable the BBC to become more directly accountable to its public instead of to government
• Engender greater public trust by inviting the public in
• Provide a means to further ensure and evidence independence from politics, elites, internal group-think, and guard against accusations to the contrary
• Rebuild public support for the universal funding model while creating greater scope for commercial revenue  

Responding to the consultation 

The public consultation closed on 10 March (2026). Prior to the close date we encouraged members and supporters to back our proposal.