Relocation will go ahead despite BBC only receiving half of money it asked for from government

The BBC’s relocation to a new media village in Salford will still go ahead, despite the corporation receiving almost half of the money it was demanding to fund the move.

The BBC’s borrowing limit will be restricted to £230m, way below the £400m it was asking for to cover the costs of relocating 1,500 people to Wilkinson Eyre-designed buildings in a new media village in Salford.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is expected to announce later today in the Commons that the deal will break the historic link with inflation and the licence fee will rise by 3% over each of the next two years, followed by a 2% rise for the next two years and an increase of between 0% and 2% in the final year of the deal. By 2012 the fee is expected to be a maximum of £151.

The BBC’s business editor Roger Peston said the figure was almost half of what the BBC felt it needed.

The BBC said it also needed the extra money to fund the digital switch over. The corporation was planning to give away free digital set top boxes for the elderly and vulnerable to help with the switch.