Lord Marlesford
Main Page: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Lord Marlesford Excerpts
Lord Judd
My Lords, I am very glad to support this amendment. It seems that what we are dealing with here in this whole clause, as we argued in Committee, is not only the policy inherent in the clause now but the threat that it offers for the future. Since the Second World War, Governments of all persuasions have consistently adhered to the principle that there is something so special in this asset of these unique areas of countryside in our country—which are enjoyed by our people and have this incalculable value as a place for physical and spiritual regeneration—that there must be absolutely no doubt whatever that the protection of what they are about and of their scenic uniqueness takes precedence over everything. The trouble is that, once the door is pushed open and left, after discussion and argument, just a little ajar, there is this danger of still further erosion.
I support my noble friend on the Front Bench, who has paid a warm tribute to the Minister. She has been outstanding in her commitment and courtesy to the House and to the Committee. I have always thought that she was a decent, civilised person, and the way in which she has responded to the criticisms that have been made have left me in absolutely no doubt about that whatever. I would like her to accept that we are trying to uphold her in those values which she so obviously embraces. I was having a private word with her at one point and unfortunately—although I understand it—by the time that legislation is on the Order Paper and being debated there has been an awful lot of intellectual and policy input and people are very committed to the position which they have put forward and on which they have worked in a dedicated way to try to get the draft as true as possible. Sometimes there comes a moment when the logical thing to do is to stop trying to perfect something that is not really right and just to say, “That one was interesting but it is not going to be in the Bill in the future”. However, it is a very difficult thing for all those who have been involved to accept that sort of provision. I hardly dare say, and I do not mean this in any aggressive or patronising way whatever, but in all of us—not least myself sometimes—face is a very important issue, and sometimes it becomes so in the legislative process.
The logical thing for this House to do is to adopt the amendments that have been put so clearly by the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter. I hope that the House will endorse her position.
Lord Marlesford
I will just say a word in support of my noble friend’s amendment, which I have put my name to. First, I join in what has been said about my noble friend the Minister. In the years that I have been here, one has often had Ministers who, one feels, are mere parrots for the civil servants. That is not the case with my noble friend. She has taken a real interest and is really concerned to get the right answer. What is the right answer? I think there are three points.
First, as has been said, the protection and cherishing of these very special landscapes, particularly the national parks and the areas of outstanding natural beauty, is crucial for our very small island. The way in which we have retained them since 1949 is amazing. It must be remembered that we were 50 years after the Americans in inventing national parks, but a wonderful job has been done with them. We therefore have to make absolutely sure that we do not legislate for a short-term apparent problem. Nobody denies that the whole broadband thing is important, and we are united on the need for it, but we should not legislate on a short-term basis for that with any risk of undermining the very long-term principle of preserving these landscapes for generations to come. That is my first point, and I know that my noble friend is attempting to meet that in the amendment that she has put forward.
The second point is what could actually happen to the landscape as a result of what is going to happen in the way of installation of broadband. I had the advantage of going to a meeting with British Telecom—which my noble friend the Minister chaired, sponsored and arranged—and I found it, in a sense, quite helpful. There were one or two things that particularly struck me. First, although we questioned BT very closely, it was not able to produce a single example from the past or the predictable future of why this clause is needed. It is all very theoretical. The second point is that they showed us the various bits of hardware which are involved in broadband—one, of course, is the cabinets, which do the switching. They are quite big, about twice the size of filing cabinet, and they have to be scattered around; it is a little unclear how close they have to be to the service that they are trying to provide. They take the fibre optic cable and then transfer it to the copper cable, which is what most of the broadband ends up reaching the final premises in, unless it is a new premises in which case, they put the fibre optic straight in. The cabinets are quite big and could be very intrusive. It ought, in my view, to be quite easy to conceal them, and make sure that they are carefully sited.
The thing that worries me much more is the wires—the fibre optic cables that carry the signal. Wires that are strewn across open countryside can be very intrusive and damaging to the landscape and one simply does not want them. In the past, much care has been taken to ensure that that does not happen. British Telecom told us that where there are underground wires already, it will use the ducts in which those wires go to put the new fibre optics in. Where the services are already over ground, it will probably put the fibre optic cable on the poles that already exist. That is probably acceptable.
However, there is another point. BT is not the only organisation that will be putting in broadband in these rural areas. Another big company, the Japanese company Fujitsu, is keen to come in. We know that the ownership of existing methods of transferring wires is largely in the hands of BT. In theory it would be just as possible for the incoming company to take exactly the same care and trouble for its wires and cables as BT does. However, the fact is that this is something that belongs to BT and so it will have a commercial right to expect some money in exchange for using it.
The world of telecommunications—and the world as a whole—is highly competitive, and companies are trying to cut their costs to get the orders and the business. The point that I raised, which I hope that my noble friend may be able to comment on, is: to what extent—when we have finished with the Bill as it now looks with the amendments from my noble friend—will we be able to ensure that a third company, as it were, that comes in to install broadband in these sensitive areas is not able to cut a few cents of the cost by putting overhead lines where underground wires exist, or by putting up new poles where other people’s poles exist?
That is a really important consideration, which brings me to the third point about the importance of this debate. We know now, and have known for years, ever since various constitutional changes, that what is said in Parliament and can be read in Hansard is of value in the real world in years to come. Therefore, I am very anxious that, in expressing our concerns and wishes, we all spell out the problems and the Minister seeks to spell out the answers, so that when cases arise in which there are controversies and conflicts, at least Hansard will be able to be quoted and the intention and wish of Parliament can be interpreted.
Lord Tyler
My Lords, I strongly support my noble friend Lady Parminter. I should say that in the past I was vice-chair of a national park committee and therefore hold very dearly the responsibilities of the wider public within the national parks for their effective preservation and conservation in the national interest. I would also emphasise that there are many SMEs in national parks that will benefit from the extension of these very important communication facilities. However, there is a real urgency to have real clarity in the new regime to make sure that there is proper co-ordination between those who are going to provide for these new facilities along with the existing undertakings.
From my previous experience of seeing how the statutory undertakings, before they were privatised, never really got to grips with the need for co-ordination, the point that my noble friend made just now—about making sure that those who provide the new facilities are also properly co-ordinated with those who have responsibility, for example, for improving energy supplies—is absolutely critical. Otherwise we would have the ridiculous situation of upheaval and then renewed upheaval as the new undertakings take over. The equal need for greater clarity, to which my noble friend just referred, is extremely important, because otherwise we will have a very confused situation.
There is such urgency for this that I hope my noble friend the Minister will be able to give us an undertaking that preparatory work is well in hand to ensure that all the issues to which my noble friend referred are already being carefully examined. I am sure that all the communities within the national parks, and those who have concerns about the future of the national parks outwith them, will be met in the next few weeks and not be left with many months of consultation and revision before we see a final result.
Lord Marlesford
In supporting this amendment, I underline that we are talking not only about national parks but specifically about areas of outstanding natural beauty. Perhaps I could remind your Lordships that one is not more important than the other in the hierarchy of beauty. The difference between national parks and AONBs is that national parks are wilderness areas, which AONBs are not; they are very often highly cultivated and farmed areas.
I remind your Lordships once again of a phrase that was used and which is central to the whole issue in its broadest context. It is a phrase that was used by Nicholas Ridley while ex cathedra, as one of the best Environment Secretaries there has been since that government department was created. He stated the importance of protecting the countryside for its own sake. That really embraces it, whether the new broadband is being put into a national park, an AONB, a special landscape area or anywhere where there would be or could be gratuitous damage to a precious landscape.
Lord Adonis
My Lords, first, I reinforce the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, about the importance of seeing that there is a proper communications infrastructure for the national parks, including superfast broadband. He said there were many SMEs. I have been struck by quite how many there are. According to the information that has been supplied to us, there are 22,000 businesses in the national parks, of which over 70% are SMEs. In areas of outstanding natural beauty, there are more than 61,000 businesses, of which 74% are SMEs. There are also 153,000 homes in national parks and over 467,000 in areas of outstanding natural beauty. We are therefore wrestling here with the need to get the balance right. All these businesses and residents want to see modern communications infrastructure, but they want it installed in the most sensitive way possible after proper processes of consultation and collaboration locally. That is what we are seeking to get right.
We have been talking a lot about processes, and a key question is what is going to happen in the rollout of this infrastructure, a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford. It is clear that big choices will have to be made about how much undergrounding takes place when it comes to overhead wires. That will be a critical issue as this infrastructure is rolled out. There are real causes for concern. It is hard to predict quite what will happen after this legislation is passed and plans come forward. The impact assessment that followed DCMS’s consultation referred to possibly 1,600 kilometres of new overhead wire lines in protected landscapes over the five-year period for which the changes apply. However, it is impossible to gain an accurate understanding of the impact because the document quotes two different figures for the expected annual increase in overhead lines.
However, the Campaign for National Parks points out that there is a good deal of discretion when this work is being planned as to how much is undergrounded. The relevant regulatory bodies make allowances in the control periods for the amounts that can be spent on undergrounding overhead electricity lines. This also applies to decisions that BT will take about undergrounding other telecommunications lines. The sums of money involved are very large. The Campaign for National Parks also points out:
“Given the resources … now being put into undergrounding power lines, it would be more cost-effective to plan for broadband delivery in protected areas in a way that reduces the visual impacts from the outset, even if this results in higher costs initially. Installing broadband infrastructure as quickly and cheaply as possible would be a false economy and a waste of consumers’ and taxpayers’ money if further funding has to be generated at a later date to put these lines underground”.
The national parks make the very sound point there that to go headlong into the cheapest possible means of installing infrastructure only to have to replace it in due course because of a public outcry as a result of the failure to underground where it is needed to protect and enhance the landscape, would be a false economy. Let us be clear about that. Not to plan properly for this and then to have to come back a second time and spend a very large amount of taxpayers’ money in undergrounding lines because it was not planned properly the first time around would be a false economy. We are not very good in this country at planning infrastructure in such a way that we do not have to go back and do it a second time because we did not plan it properly the first time around.
I hope that the noble Baroness, in her concluding remarks, will recognise the problem that we face here: the obvious need to get infrastructure to those in national parks who require it for their livelihoods, but not to do so in a way that will only require us to go back and do it all a second time because we did not get it right the first time.