The 19 April programme included a phone-in on the theme “Would you buy a new-build home”, which was based on a newspaper article on this topic. The programme included contributions from callers who were critical of Bovis Homes.  In this programme Bovis Homes’ position was represented only by a quotation by the presenter from a statement it had provided for the newspaper article.  The 26 April programme revisited the case of the first contributor and included an interview with her.  In this programme Bovis Homes’ position was represented by a statement provided on 3 April and previously broadcast on 7 April. In neither instance did the BBC contact Bovis Homes to give them the right of reply on the programme. The ECU concluded that, although the programmes included nothing which engaged the issue of due impartiality, the failure to seek up-to-date responses from Bovis (which would likely have included customer-specific information about the cases raised and wider information that a recent Home Builders Federation survey showed Bovis Homes’ customer satisfaction score was trending around 87% at the time of the programmes) resulted in unfairness.
Partly upheld