Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Andrew Percy and Andrew Jones(7 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Andrew Jones)
The Government are investing more than £1 billion to stimulate the market to build the next generation digital infrastructure that the UK needs for the future. This includes the £400 million digital infrastructure investment fund and the £740 million for full fibre broadband and 5G mobile. That is in addition to the Government-led £1.7 billion superfast programme, which will extend coverage to 95% of UK premises by the end of the year.
Andrew Percy
The vast majority of my constituents in east Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire now enjoy superfast broadband, but a small number in rural areas still struggle with access to broadband and to good 4G, 3G or even 2G mobile coverage. What more can the Government do to give BT Openreach and the mobile networks a kick up the backside to make sure that we get the coverage that we are all paying for?
Andrew Jones
The Government are working to continue their progress on the superfast broadband roll-out. We expect to reach 95% by the end of this year. We have already seen some changes from the internal reorganisation within British Telecom, separating out Openreach. The progress will be maintained through Government expenditure in that programme and in the digital infrastructure investment fund.