Charge will continue to rise in line with inflation for five years, following government announcement in 2016

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The annual television licence fee will increase to £147 from £145.50 on 1 April this year, the government has said – the first time it has risen since 2010.

It was announced by the government last year the licence fee would rise in line with inflation for five years from 1 April 2017.

The cost of a TV licence was frozen for seven years in 2010. However, last year the government agreed that the fee would begin to rise again in return for the BBC taking on the cost of paying for free licences for the over-75s, and applying it to people who only use the iPlayer.

The increased fee will only apply to those buying or renewing a licence after 1 April.

The announcement comes as the broadcaster’s director general said TV licence collectors had “fallen short”, following reports they were deliberately targeting vulnerable people who have not paid.

Capita is reportedly paid £58m a year to collect licence fees for the broadcaster, and its staff were said to have targeted vulnerable people, including a war veteran with dementia and a young mother in a women’s refuge.

In a letter to Capita’s chief executive Andy Parker, the BBC’s Tony Hall expressed his “serious concern” about the reports and called for “urgent clarification and reassurance” that vulnerable people were not being “targeted”.