by Marcus Ryder MBE
These are personal views, and do not reflect the view of Birmingham City University or the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.
In 1991 I was a census enumerator, it was a part time job as a university student. A census enumerator, in case you didn’t know, is the person who goes door to door handing out the census to each household, picking it up when completed and offering help if people have any questions.
I was responsible for eight streets in Kilburn and a tower block. It was one of the hardest jobs I ever had. I had a lot of doors slammed in my face, heard a lot of words that I don’t think are appropriate to commit to a blog post and was even threatened with a dog.
I had to undergo a half day of training in order to do the job. One of the points that was made throughout my training was why the census was so important. The census is used to decide how public bodies should allocate their resources, which groups public bodies should focus their services towards and how to form public policy.
Thirty years later I have hung up my census enumerator clipboard, but now working for the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity (LHC) the census data is more relevant to my work than ever, especially when it comes to assessing how public broadcasters should address diversity.
Last month the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published the 2021 census figures for England and Wales ethnicity. The new figures revealed that the percentage of the population identifying as non-White had risen from 14% to 18.3%.
These new figures come at the same time that the BBC is currently discussing cuts to its local radio provision.
The BBC is proposing to rationalise its local radio provision and reduce its output in non-peak hours and on the weekends. The concern for people interested in diversity is that all of the BBC local radio programmes that are aimed specifically at Black and Asian audiences fall into these “non-peak” hours, and therefore the cuts will “disproportionately” affect Black and Asian programming, staff and audiences.
The BBC responded to these concerns by saying the cuts will not “disproportionately” impact these audiences, although has been vague when it comes to the details.
The LHC held a public discussion on the issue last month BBC Local Radio Cuts - Could Diversity Be the Biggest Casualty? - YouTube.
But in light of the new census (and thinking back to my training as a census enumerator) I now believe looking at whether the BBC local cuts will disproportionately affect Black and Asian communities is fundamentally wrong.
The current provision of BBC local radio services to its Black and Asian audiences is based (correctly) on 2011 census data. Now that the new census data has been revealed, and the non-White population of England and Wales has grown, the BBC needs to assess any cuts not against its previous services to these communities but whether they are fit for purpose for a growing demographic.
In fact, even if the BBC fails to nominally cut any of its local radio programming for its Black and Asian audiences it will effectively be a cut in real terms. In other words - if the non-White population has grown and the BBC keeps it services to that community at the same level this is a cut.
The reality is brought into even sharper focus when one actually looks at the specific BBC local radio programmes against the 2021 census data for the areas they are broadcast in.
In every area where there are BBC local radio programmes targeting Black and Asian audiences, the non-White population they are serving has increased.
A few examples of the demographic changes since 2011 to 2021:
- The non-White population has increased from 42% to 51.4%
- The Asian population has increased from 20% - 31%
- The Black population has increased from 6.1% to 10.9%
- The non-White population has increased from 8.2% to 18.9%
- The Asian population has increased from 3.4% to 6.7%
- The Black population has increased from 2.3% to 5.8%
- The non-White population has increased from 45.3% to 54.8%
- The Asian population has increased from 30% - 37.1%
- The Black population has increased from 9.8% - 10%
- The non-White population has increased from 23.6% to 26.2%
- The Asian population has increased from 12.5% to 15.6%
- The Black population has increased from 2.9% to 4%
- The non-White population has increased from 11.1% to 16%
- The Asian population has increased from 4.1% to 5.7%
- The Black population has increased from 2.6% to 3.5%
Oxford’s non-White population has increased from 22% to 29%, London’s non-White population has increased from 40.2% to 46.2%, Leicester's non-White population has increased from 49% to 60%.
With this being the case any “proportionate” cuts to the current Black and Asian programming will actually be a massive “disproportionate” cut in real terms.
The timing of the census data and the BBC’s proposed cuts to local radio is actually a unique opportunity for the BBC to restructure its local radio services to better serve the communities it serves.
That is after all the point of the census, and why I believe that my work as a lowly census enumerator in 1991 was one of the most important public service jobs I have ever done.