Broadband (North of England)

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2014 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Sanders. As a west country man, you may not fully agree, but I believe that the quality of life that we enjoy in the north of England is higher than that of the south. I recognise, however, that big differences remain between our economies; the north’s lags quite a way behind the south’s. There are many reasons for that, and one of the main ones is our relative lack of infrastructure. We have, historically, described infrastructure in terms of power generation or transport links, but that is an old definition. Broadband is one of the key infrastructures that we need to take advantage of the opportunities of the digital age.

The Government have been right to recognise that broadband matters; they have put significant investment behind it quickly and extended it widely, and brought in private sector capital. They recognised early that the opportunities are so wide that they have an impact on, and improve, many aspects of life. Some of those influences are critical for the future, such as helping with education, telehealth and keeping the economy competitive. There are opportunities to enhance the quality of our lives significantly by keeping in touch with family and friends, and there are things that are simply fun, such as streaming films or gaming. I will highlight a couple of important things relevant to my area: telehealth and business.

Telehealth or telemedicine is a means of using technology for access to expertise whenever it is needed, and for the provision of care. It helps in tackling the challenges of an ageing population and helps people to stay in their own homes. It brings health care into people’s homes or communities, however remote those are. Telehealth is a simple idea, on which we have leadership in the north of England. I have seen an impressive demonstration of telemedicine by doctors from Airedale general hospital, and have seen it in use in the stroke unit at Harrogate district hospital, where the clinicians can access the best stroke care remotely. A good, fast internet connection is needed for that, which means superfast broadband. Telemedicine is part of the future, and it is fantastic.

In the world of business, which was my background before I became a Member of Parliament, people must be accessible to their customers, and that now includes web access. Different parts of the north have strengths in different sectors, and I am sure that other hon. Members will focus on the ones relevant to their areas. Two with scale in North Yorkshire are the visitor economy and agriculture.

Last week was English tourism week, and as part of that I visited several tourism facilities in my constituency, including the Bijou Boutique bed and breakfast in Harrogate. The proprietors, Stephen and Jill Watson, talked to me about the large proportion of their customers who find out about them online and book online. Managing their online presence is critical so that more customers will be able to learn what their business has to offer. That is particularly true for our area, where so much of the economy is driven by visitors.

A highlight this year will be when we host the grand départ of the Tour de France. It is only 90 or so days away, and Yorkshire will become a huge visitor and media attraction. Superfast North Yorkshire has responded by enabling communities along the route to get broadband. The roll-out may not be completed before the tour arrives, but at least it has listened, responded and made progress.

Superfast broadband is not just about reaching customers, and enabling them to reach businesses in turn. It drives business efficiency, helps with access to purchasing deals and takes cost and bureaucracy out of the business. We can see that in the agricultural sector, where some regulatory matters require an online presence. For example, the online cattle tracing system and dealing with the Rural Payments Agency require connectivity. Government is going online. Businesses with a turnover of more than £100,000 must fill in their VAT returns online; there is no choice. That catches many farmers and rural businesses, and it is not easy to do that through a slow dial-up facility.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing a debate on a subject of great importance both to his constituents, who live in a rural setting, and to businesses on the largest industrial estate in Europe—Trafford Park, in my constituency. Does he agree that although those businesses may have very different characteristics, they all share an urgent need for superfast broadband connection, to maximise business potential?

[Andrew Jones]

Yes, I strongly agree with that argument. I do not think that the scale or sector of a business, or the geography, really matter. The point about broadband is the ability to get access to customers all over the world. We need it, and quickly. The hon. Lady’s point is absolutely correct. For a rural business, dialling up on a slow landline that other family members might also use is incredibly slow going. Businesses without connectivity are being left behind, which is why good, reliable superfast broadband matters.

I want to share with the House one of the successful lessons of the North Yorkshire roll-out. North Yorkshire will shortly become the best connected county in the country, because our delivery vehicle was already in place as the Government launched their broadband strategy. That vehicle was a company started previously by North Yorkshire county council, called NYnet. NYnet has done extremely well, and deserves congratulations and praise from across the county. Being in a position to start promptly and knowing where some of the challenges would lie made a difference. North Yorkshire was the first county in the country to award its roll-out contract. The roll-out has been going at the rate of about 6,000 to 7,000 properties per month, which is a good rate. I checked the latest data and at the end of last week 102,402 properties had been enabled to receive superfast broadband of at least 25 megabits per second.

Just having the capacity, however, is not enough. People have to choose it. Take-up is running at 16.2 %, and rising sharply. Superfast North Yorkshire expects to reach 20% take-up by summer, and 30% by the middle of next year. That is significant as those rates of take-up also trigger clawback elements in the contract, so the roll-out provider—in this case, British Telecom—will have to pay money back to NYnet. It will be able to use that for reinvestment to roll out broadband to remaining properties, perhaps as match funding for Government schemes. The lesson from the roll-out is that the importance really lies in demand stimulation for both residential and business customers.

In North Yorkshire, significant business support and training have been on offer. There have been local conferences at Ripon racecourse and Fountains abbey, ably organised by my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith); my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) came to speak. We encouraged business and communities to get involved. There has been good business follow-up and more than 900 businesses have been helped.

I saw for myself how Superfast North Yorkshire has been operating when I attended the launch of the service in Boroughbridge in my constituency. I thought that it was good marketing, and I come from a marketing background. It was 6 December last year. We had a roadshow, involving the local school, the local mayor, local businesses, Father Christmas, of course, and some Christmas carols, Christmas punch and Christmas cake. It was a very Christmas-themed event. We also had a giant mouse, which I used for a ceremonial switching on of the service, and, to communicate that the service was available, a fibre-optic Christmas tree lit up to symbolise it. Basically, everything added up to show that something had happened—something new, fun and for everyone. I have been informed by the local community that the take-up in Boroughbridge has been high.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. He is absolutely right to praise the work of Superfast North Yorkshire and what it has done so far in the roll-out of superfast broadband across North Yorkshire and York. I am pleased to hear about the success in Boroughbridge, but does he not agree that the key stage to reach now is that next 10%? There are not-spot communities throughout my constituency and North Yorkshire, and Askham Bryan, Askham Richard, Hessay and Acaster Malbis, all in my patch, are part of the not-spot area. Is it not right to help those communities in the last 10% to bridge the digital divide, which means looking at how we can enhance new technologies to reach them? That is the key point—getting to those communities—and it will not always be done through fibre to the cabinet.

[Andrew Jones]

My hon. Friend is as wise as ever, and I strongly agree with him. I am about to deal with those points so, if he will forgive me, I will not address them now.

The question now is about looking ahead. I want to share a couple of points with my hon. Friend the Minister. We need to be vigilant so that one provider does not develop any kind of monopoly abuse—although we are not there yet, and I have seen no evidence of such abuse in my county. As a Conservative, I believe in the merits of competition to bring choice, value and innovation, and I know that the issue is already on the Minister’s radar.

I want to focus on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer: how to give the opportunity of broadband to all homes, taking the figure from 90% to 100%. This year, my home county of North Yorkshire has roll-out phase 2 to take us to 93%. Phase 3 is planned for 2015, which will take us further. In that phase, the quest and challenge will probably move from being financial to being about decisions on the delivery method, which may have to change for the isolated homes and hamlets that are a feature of our rural areas. Satellite, wireless or other new technologies are likely to be used away from the cabling roll-out that we have seen thus far. That is urgent and important. I want people in the villages of Lower Dunsforth or Nidd in my constituency and those throughout the north who are missing out on the opportunities of broadband to be connected, so that they have opportunities to drive their businesses and to get all the benefits that broadband brings.

Superfast North Yorkshire has told me that it expects to hit 100% by 2017, which would be extremely positive, so I want to say two things to the Minister. First, and perhaps most importantly, is simply that we should press on, and quickly. Those doing the roll-out must be held accountable for the speed of progress. It is not great that some counties seem to be only just starting the sprint when North Yorkshire is approaching the finish line. That is a competitive advantage for North Yorkshire—not something I worry about normally, but from the perspective of UK plc, we need everyone to be there. Whatever the blockages, constraints or capacity problems might be, they need to be removed.

Secondly, will the Minister work with colleagues to promote business training? I have read that the benefits of the UK’s becoming a world-leading digital economy are measured in tens of billions of pounds, but only half of small and medium-sized enterprises have a website. That presents a huge opportunity, but training will be required for people to take up or even recognise it, because I have also read that many companies do not think that it is relevant to their business.

Finally, I thank the Department for Culture, Media and Sport team for putting North Yorkshire at the heart of the first phase of the roll-out. As a team of North Yorkshire MPs, we pitched for our county’s inclusion in the roll-out. It was one of the first things we did as a team after arriving in Parliament, and we were delighted to be successful. The reason why we were included was our ability to have a delivery vehicle, in the form of NYnet. That proved to be a wise decision, as we are now leading the country in this area.

The North Yorkshire team grasped the opportunity and many lives in our county are better for it. Broadband roll-out is a key part of dealing with the north-south economic divide that I mentioned at the start of my speech. We are still fighting the battle for more infrastructure in the north as a whole, and I think we are winning that battle, but for broadband it has been well and truly won.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Goodman]

All I can say to the Minister is that he should look at the map produced by Ofcom. I am sure that he will quote Ofcom’s report back to the Chamber in a minute, but he should look at that map, because it also shows significantly worse performance of the broadband roll-out.

The points that the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough made about the rural economy were absolutely spot on. Indeed, I would say that roll-out of broadband is even more important in rural areas than in urban areas, because for businesses in rural areas, transport accounts for a very high proportion of their costs and without broadband connectivity, they can do little to bring down those costs, so securing effective roll-out in rural areas is particularly important.

I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman’s complaints about the treatment of farmers and other small businesses by the public sector under this Government. It is completely disgraceful that farmers are expected to record their cattle movements online, that they have to deal with the Rural Payments Agency online, and that they have to upload their tax returns—their VAT returns—online, when they simply cannot do it. I find it astonishing that the Government think that is an appropriate way to treat farmers and rural businesses.

[Andrew Jones]

I thank the hon. Lady for her warm comments, but I do not think the Government are saying that it is acceptable. I think they are saying, “We know this matters and we are trying to roll it out.” The points I was making were a bit on the more positive side than she is suggesting. The problems did not just start in 2010; this has been a gradual growth of the digital economy and the opportunities it presents. The point I am trying to make is that we need to grab it. The Government have done well to grab it and we just need more of it.

Just as a further point—

[Mr Adrian Sanders (in the Chair)]

Order.