Lord Burns nominated as new Ofcom chairman

Terry Burns, the former Treasury mandarin and Channel 4 chairman, has been chosen as the government's preferred new chair of media and telecoms regulator Ofcom.

The parliamentary select committee for digital, culture, media and sport will now hold a pre-appointment hearing with Lord Burns on 13 December, ahead of the potential start date of 1 January 2018. Outgoing chair Dame Patricia Hodgson's term ends on 31 December.

The DCMS committee’s conclusions will be considered before deciding whether or not to proceed with the appointment.

An economist, Burns was chief economic advisor to the Treasury and head of the government economic service between 1980 and 1991 and Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 1991 until 1998. He is currently a senior adviser to Banco Santander and a non-executive member of the Office for Budget Responsibility, as well as sitting on the House of Lords Economic Affairs select committee.

In media circles he is best known for two things. First, his BBC charter report for the government on the public broadcaster's governance, funding and remit, which recommended the corporation's board of governors should be scrapped and replaced with a body independent of Ofcom, the Public Service Broadcasting Commission.

Second, he was a popular two-term chairman of Channel 4, leading a financial transformation of the broadcaster and opposing privatisation, saying it would reduce the incentives to create the new dramas and in-depth news coverage, preferring instead to protect its public-service remit within a privately owned not-for-profit corporation.

Ministers denied Burns his requested one-year extension in 2015, forcing his exit amid speculation that the broadcaster was being prepared for privatisation.

Burns' other previous appointments include Chairman of Santander UK; Marks and Spencer, Welsh Water, the National Lottery Commission and The Royal Academy of Music.