Opinion from Robert Thompson, the BBC Senior Head of Content Production for London and the East

I watched with interest the Luton North MP, Sarah Owen, talk to the Public Accounts Committee about ensuring jobs in the media are truly open to ‘all backgrounds’ (also mentioned in the Luton Today article). She is entirely right – but her subsequent comments on young people from Luton having to commute to Norwich for work at the BBC aren’t quite right. As the BBC’s Senior Head of Content Production for London and the East I am responsible for all the BBC’s local and regional content that is made across all our platforms. I am also proud to be from Luton. I was born at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, went to Icknield Junior School, Icknield High School and completed my ‘A’ Levels at Luton Sixth Form College. My mum was a headteacher in the town and still lives in Luton.

Ms Owen is right. Lutonians are an asset to the BBC. We take this seriously here. At BBC Three Counties Radio you will find a vibrant production hub that is producing not only radio, but content for our digital services as well as television. Our amazing team is made up of those very Lutonians mentioned by Ms Owen. Two of those are our production apprentices just starting their careers at the BBC. Four others are people who started their BBC careers as Journalism Co-Ordinators are now developing as Journalists and Producers in their own right. I couldn’t be prouder of them and the contribution they make every single day.

I started my journalism career in Luton when the South Beds News Agency offered me work experience and then shifts before getting my first BBC contract. It is a privilege to now be driving the services in the region where I grew up and am fiercely proud of. I want a vibrant and exciting local media market that really delivers for local audiences and an important part of this is truly connecting with new talent.

We have not closed radio studios. We are very much open for business. Our apprenticeship schemes are vital in helping develop talent pipelines, but so are the outreach events we run and the exciting partnerships we hope to build around Radio 1’s Big Weekend. It is vital we develop talent in all of our local communities and just the regional centres. It is a commitment the BBC takes seriously.

Robert Thompson, the BBC Senior Head of Content Production for London and the East.