Crimewatch, Question Time and The Weakest Link will move their production teams out of London as the BBC pledges to make half of its programmes away from the capital by the middle of the next decade.

The switch, in which the corporation will boost its spending from £300million to about £500million in today's terms, is designed to offset ITV's cost-driven retreat to London and help the BBC to shed its metropolitan image. Jana Bennett, the BBC director of vision, said that the move was intended to change “the voices we hear, the local faces and lives we see reflected on our screens” at a time when commercial rivals were facing “chill winds”.

The broadcaster has been associated with the capital since its inception in the 1920s. ITV was set up as a regional network in the 1950s as a counterweight, making Coronation Street in Manchester and Emmerdale in Leeds.

Casualty, filmed in Bristol since the hospital drama's launch, is likely to move to Cardiff, joining Doctor Who. The move is intended to build what Ms Bennett called a “sustainable centre of excellence for drama in Wales”. Bristol, home to the BBC's Natural History Unit, will retain its association with that genre. A production centre in Birmingham will take responsibilty for gardening programmes, such as the Chelsea and Hampton Court shows, although both are filmed in the South East.

No channels will move out of the capital beyond the three already earmarked as heading to Salford - CBBC and CBeebies, the children's networks, and Radio 5 Live.

The BBC shift to the regions came on the same day that Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, gave warning that Ofcom proposals to “top slice” the licence fee could undermine the BBC's independence.

In a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild, Sir Michael argued that the “risk that top-slicing could undermine broadcasting independence must not be under-estimated”. Sir Michael said that any sharing of the £3.4 billion licence fee “would inevitably require a new public body to distribute the money: a single institution, which the broadcasters would seek to please in return for funding - rather than their audiences”.

Next month, Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, will present proposals aimed at staving off the top-slicing threat by offering commercial rivals the chance to share the BBC's news gathering, facilities, technology and regional locations.

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