NUJ criticises BBC decision to axe Salford-made Radio 4 show You and Yours

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and its members in Salford say they are “dismayed” that BBC Radio 4’s only live daily programme made outside London is to be scrapped.

You and Yours is one of the station’s heritage titles. The union says it has “solid listening figures”, and its audience has grown since Covid while larger programmes have seen numbers fall or stall.

Its live audience is now at a similar level to that of Desert Island Discs. According to the NUJ, the BBC was “inundated” with thousands of messages objecting to the closure of the consumer programme, which has changed laws and lives, at a time of continuing cost-of-living pressure.

The union points out that the BBC recently created Your Voice to gather stories from licence fee payers, something You and Yours has done for over 50 years.

Responding to its listeners, the programme has tracked the rise of fraud and scams for 20 years, well before fraud was included in the British Crime Survey. Through its work, victims of crime have recovered millions of pounds.

Its reporting has contributed to changes in laws and regulation covering online banking security, gambling, and the terms and conditions of insurance. The NUJ says it would be “hard to think of a better example of public service broadcasting.”

In the most recent cuts at Salford, 11 posts are to close in the teams that make Radio 4 programmes. Religion and Ethics is also being scaled back, including its head of production.

The Daily Service, one of the world’s longest-running radio programmes, faces a significant budget cut and a move to a new digital format, and it is unclear where it will air.

In Touch, the weekly programme for blind and partially sighted listeners, is also losing funding, and the number of episodes of long-running comedy strand Loose Ends is being cut.

The NUJ is calling on BBC management to rethink the decisions and avoid a “doom spiral” of cuts and shrinking services. It will keep talking to the government about the issue and hopes the decisions can be reversed.