Broadband: Full-fibre Coverage
Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts(6 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Ashton of Hyde
Where I live, in a reasonably rural area, water was not laid on to houses until relatively recently. I think most people today think that running water in your home is a requirement. I take my noble friend’s point. He may not want superfast, let alone ultrafast broadband, but more and more people do, and it is important for the economy. More people need it, so, gradually—as we said, by 2033—it will be available. Of course, he does not have to use it or sign up for it and therefore will not have to pay for it.
Lord Steel of Aikwood (LD)
My Lords, further to that question, what does the Minister have to say to people in my former constituency—in, for example, the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys—who, far from waiting for fibre broadband cannot even get email services at present? Surely the Government should be concentrating on that as well as the future.
Lord Ashton of Hyde
Many people in the noble Lord’s party have castigated us for lack of ambition. On the one hand, we absolutely understand that they should be able to get superfast broadband, but we are also ensuring that the universal service obligation, which comes in in 2020, will give them a legal right to a minimum speed which will allow them to have email and watch TV at 10 megabits per second. Our ambition, which we are talking about today, is to go much beyond that, as it is an accepted rule that most people require more capacity as time goes on—there will be the internet of things and many other examples of why we need more capacity. I take his point and we are addressing it in the universal service obligation.
BBC: Equal Pay
Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts(7 years, 3 months ago)
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Lord Ashton of Hyde
My Lords, I completely agree. This is a sort of philosophical question that should really have a debate. It is a question of cost versus value and priorities. I would point out that the Labour Party, in the discussions on the proposal to require these issues to be published, thought that it was a bad idea and that the proposal should be withdrawn.
Lord Steel of Aikwood (LD)
Does the Minister not agree that it is outrageous that any individual is paid more than £2 million from licence fee money?
Lord Ashton of Hyde
It is a very large amount—but why draw the line at £2 million as opposed to any other amount?