Hope for rebate on TV licence fee

Licence fee payers could enjoy a "one-off reduction" in the £145.50 they pay every year if the plan for the BBC to fund the Welsh language service S4C falls through.

The government agreed with the BBC this week that the corporation will provide more than 90 per cent of S4C's annual 83 million funding by 2013.

In a letter to Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, media secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government would not reclaim the cash if the deal fellthrough, but added: "In this situation the trust (should] propose a one-off reduction in the level of the licence fee, which would be equivalent to the contribution that the BBC would otherwise have made to S4C."