Broadband (South Northamptonshire)

Andrea Leadsom Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Westminster Hall

[Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Williams.

Good broadband coverage is not just important for those of us who want to download films and TV shows, do internet shopping or keep up to date with the latest news; it is truly vital for those who work from home and those who run their own businesses. Broadband is a superb investment, which is projected to boost local growth across the country, with a net return of £20 for every £1 spent by 2024.

Often, however, the emphasis is on getting good coverage for towns and cities. I want to make the case that good broadband coverage in rural areas is every bit as important. My constituency, South Northamptonshire, covers 92 parishes—many of them rural—two market towns and a decent chunk of Northampton, our county town. In 2012, Northamptonshire county council undertook an open market review to determine the level of broadband coverage in the district of South Northamptonshire. The council surveyed over 38,000 premises in the district; of those, it discovered that 27,000 were identified as unserved. In 2012, then, about 70% of all premises in the district of South Northamptonshire had no broadband coverage at all.

Overall, I am delighted with the steps that both the Government and Northamptonshire county council are taking. The Government are already investing £1.2 billion to supply people across the UK with access to superfast broadband. The target set is for 95% of the UK to have access to superfast broadband coverage by 2017. The Government have acknowledged the importance of good broadband infrastructure in creating more jobs and ensuring small businesses have they support they need. I am encouraged that 10,000 homes and businesses are getting superfast upgrades each week, with that figure set to rise to 40,000 premises a week by the summer. Finally, I was delighted by the announcement, made only yesterday by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, of the allocation of an extra £250 million to ensure that all areas of the UK are able to hit the 2017 target. I certainly welcome the £3.64 million additional allocation for Northamptonshire.

The backing is there. Closer to home, I am glad that Northamptonshire county council has its own excellent plans for roll-out to deliver 90% coverage in the county by 2015. Over 50,000 premises will gain access as a result of the just over £4 million allocated by the county council, together with over £4 million from Broadband Delivery UK and an investment of £3.2 million from BT. The council reports that it now intends to go further than its initial 2015 target and is already talking to commercial providers to revisit the extent of commercial plans. The council has put aside an extra £2 million, and I am sure it will welcome the additional sum of just over £3.5 million allocated yesterday by the Secretary of State.

Northamptonshire county council has one of the most detailed “when and where” maps in the country. Although residents are aware that plans could change, that map provides the best information available on the extent of coverage, by when the coverage will be in place and how the council expects plans to come forward. Of the 27,000 properties in my constituency that were identified as unserved, the council expects that 18,500 will receive access to superfast broadband through its investment, and that of BDUK and BT. The Superfast Northamptonshire project will see another 4,175 premises in South Northamptonshire receive coverage. It is the council’s aim to secure full superfast coverage by the end of 2017.

For all that good news, full access is still a terribly long way off. I regularly receive reports from annoyed and frustrated residents in my constituency who are struggling to gain decent access, or any access at all, to broadband services. Although Northamptonshire county council has a clear and ambitious plan, it is held hostage slightly by private companies that may or may not stick to the commitments they have made.

Broadband should rightly be the domain of the private sector, so there are clear rules about how and where the public sector can intervene, but Grange Park in my constituency is a good example of an area where broadband is a major issue. The majority of the area falls within the commercial plans of BT’s provision. As it has declared a commercial interest, the county council cannot intervene with a solution as that would be in breach of state aid regulations. The county council, parish council and Grange Park residents are pressing BT to deliver on its commercial proposals and to set out a clear timetable. I understand that there will soon be a meeting with BT’s regional director for the east midlands, and I hope that they will be able to move things forward.

The problem in Grange Park is that it is a significant distance from the exchange and around a quarter of properties are served by telephony over passive optical networks—T-PON—which will not support superfast fibre-based services. A solution must be found, but it may not be simple and may be expensive. Residents believe that BT has an obligation, and that it must not step back from its proposed commercial response and transfer the problem back to the county council. A delay in securing good broadband coverage to the area and finding the additional funding, which would be needed if the problem were given back to the council, would be unacceptable.

One resident wrote to me recently explaining the issue. He fears that BT will conclude that it is not commercially viable to change T-PON to fibre to the cabinet—FTTC—which is the infrastructure that is so desperately needed. My constituent concludes that the problem is the lack of competition as BT is the only commercial provider. If Virgin, for example, had existing infrastructure in Grange Park, BT would be fighting to retain business instead of receiving the same revenue for line rental and current broadband services without having to provide any investment.

My constituent also explained that many residents have their own businesses and work from home, and that the problem is so serious for many that they may have no alternative other than to move away if it really will be 2017 or beyond before the problem is resolved. I hope that the Minister will assure my constituents that commercial companies will be strongly encouraged by any means possible to stick to their commitments.

I appreciate that BT is providing broadband speeds of up to 80 megabytes in Brackley, benefiting more than 6,500 properties, and a higher speed copper broadband speed of up to 20 megabytes, benefiting Middleton Cheney and Roade, to name just a couple of villages. By the end of 2014, its current plans will benefit communities in Paulerspury, Blisworth, Pattishall, Silverstone, Blakesley, Chipping Warden, Cogenhoe, Hackleton, Sulgrave and Yardley Hastings. That is great news and hugely welcomed, but it is of no comfort to my constituents in Grange Park, and I urge private providers to ensure they carry out their proposed investment plans.

Towcester is one of the largest market towns in my constituency, but until a couple of weeks ago, constituents were explaining to me that if they were lucky they could receive a connection speed of about 3.5 megabytes, and for some it was no more than 1 megabyte. I am pleased that because of county council investment, 10 new fibre cabinets went live on 3 February. I am delighted that the Minister was able to attend the celebration, and I hope that residents will soon experience the benefits. However, Towcester residents are still having problems with mobile phone signals, and if the Minister has five minutes to sort that out, they would be incredibly grateful.

I want to finish by mentioning the Tove valley community broadband project, which is a fantastic example of a community taking matters into its own hands. Last year, the community-based initiative celebrated its 10th anniversary of bringing an internet service to the Tove valley. Volunteers of the Abthorpe broadband association, led by Eric Malcomson, initially brought a satellite-based service to Abthorpe and later an ADSL system, but the villages now have a broadband service offering speeds of up to 30 megabytes, well above the national average, and an average of 20 megabytes even at the furthest reaches.

In the target area, 50% of households have signed up to the superfast service, well above the critical mass required to make the project financially viable. More than 225 of the 450 households have asked for the service and 208 are already connected. That was completed in less than six months since the service started in May 2013.

The communities of Abthorpe, Astwell, Bradden, Foscote, Lois Weedon, Slapton, Wappenham and Weston have benefited. I am delighted to be a resident of Slapton, so I am a beneficiary. Those connections have been completed and coverage is being extended to Helmdon. All the villages are delighted with the opportunities that connection provides, and what has been done there should be a model for future broadband initiatives in rural areas. It was an honour to be asked to open the project in Abthorpe in June 2013.

I was delighted to attend the 2013 TalkTalk digital heroes awards at the end of 2013 when Eric Malcomson, chairman of the Abthorpe broadband association, won the east midlands regional award. The award celebrates people who use digital technology to help their local communities, and Eric has worked tirelessly to deliver a fantastic service to a very rural area. I cannot overstate how beneficial the service had been to many communities. Tove valley community broadband project achieved a finalist’s position in the fixed rural networks category at the 2013 NextGen awards.

In conclusion, I congratulate the Government on the work and investment to ensure that even those in the hardest-to-reach places can access good broadband services. I also commend my own county council for its ambitious targets, and for recognising how important broadband is to rural areas. I am conscious that this must not be an attack on private providers. The investment that private commercial companies are providing is vital. However, I urge that that investment should continue and I hope that private companies will work with local councils to agree solutions and suitable timescales to deliver better services to areas such as Grange Park.

I would be grateful if the Minister explained what steps his Department can take to ensure that private companies cannot hold councils to ransom at the expense of good broadband coverage for communities in desperate need of it.