The future of BBC licence fee is in doubt after appointment of John Whittingdale, the chair of the commons culture committee, as the new culture secretary.

Whittingdale, who has chaired the culture, media and sport select committee since 2005, will take a tough stance against the BBC when charter renewal negotiations begin later this year.

In October, he described the BBC licence fee as “worse than poll tax” and said the £145.50 charge was unsustainable in the long term.

However, Whittingdale said he expected the licence fee to survive until the end of the next charter period in 2026, but suggested that it could eventually be stripped back to allow people an “element of choice” in what they pay and what services they receive.

“In the long term it is unsustainable,” he said. “When I say unsustainable in the long term, I’m talking about over 20, 50 years. I think in the longer term we are potentially looking at reducing at least a proportion of the licence fee that is compulsory and introducing an element of choice.”

He has said that the licence fee does need to be “tweaked” to take into account of on-demand viewing via the BBC’s iPlayer, and he has said that licence fee evasion should be decriminalised.

While Whittingdale said there is no “serious possibility” of the licence fee being axed in this charter renewal period, the BBC’s governing body, the BBC Trust, is likely to be dismantled.

In February, Whittingdale’s select committee called for the abolition of the BBC Trust in a 166-page report that heavily criticised the corporation over issues including executive payoffs and the handling of the Jimmy Savile and Lord McAlpine scandals.

As culture secretary Whittingdale will push for much more rigorous oversight of the BBC, including giving the National Audit Office unrestricted access to the BBC’s accounts and creating a new public service broadcasting commission.

The 55-year old has said that the BBC Trust is “far too close to the BBC and blurs accountability”. “An organisation of the size and cost of the BBC must be subject to the most rigorous independent scrutiny,” he said.

Michael Grade, a former BBC chairman, said that Whittingdale will treat the corporation fairly despite the delivery of a scathing report.

“He knows the turf inside out,” says Michael Grade, former chairman of the BBC. “Of course the all-party committee report will undoubtedly be fresh in his mind. But I am certain John would come to it with an open mind, with a very professional and informed approach. The BBC’s starting point is the status quo and a bit more money, if that is the starting point they are in for a rude awakening. I don’t think he is anti-BBC, he asks the right questions. He will be very fair and have in the forefront of his mind the interests of licence fee payers”.

Whittingdale has also carefully leant his support to self-regulation of the press through the Independent Press Standards Organisation, the replacement of the discredited Press Complaints Commission.

“If Ipso fails to deliver the strong regulation that we’re all agreed is necessary then it might have to be revisited but we need to give Ipso a chance,” he said, speaking at a fringe event on the future of the BBC at the Conservative party conference last September.

Channel 4 could also be facing an uncertain future, with the possibility of privatisation likely to be on the agenda.

The Conservatives quietly considered privatisation during the last government.

Whittingdale, who has twice served as shadow culture secretary, once tabled an amendment to the 1996 broadcasting bill seeking to privatise the state-owned, Ofcom-regulated broadcaster.

The incumbent culture minister, Sajid Javid, has taken over from Vince Cable as business secretary.