Rural Phone and Broadband Connectivity

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Guy Opperman]

In what must be the ultimate not spot, nobody who represents an England or a Scotland constituency is present on the Labour Benches. It is not very impressive, we would all agree.

I want to start by talking about the progress that has been made in Northumberland, such that there has now been provision of fibre broadband to Stocksfield, Heddon, parts of Wylam, Ponteland, Stamfordham, Great Whittington, Prudhoe, most of Corbridge, Slaley, most of Hexham, parts of Allendale, Gilsland—as Joan Thirlaway only recently texted me—Greenhead, Haltwhistle, Bardon Mill, Haydon Bridge, Humshaugh, Wall, Chollerford and Wark, all of which is very successful. Sadly however, as the House will be aware, I could also give quite a long list of villages and places which have not had that benefit, although the local authority and BT assure me that it will be provided in 2015. Indeed, only today I received notification from Lieutenant Colonel Richard Clements, the commanding officer of 39 Regiment Royal Artillery, that Albemarle barracks, after many years of not having broadband, now has—literally as of today—fibre broadband being provided to it and the troops there, who have returned from Afghanistan. I pay tribute to the great work that he and all the people who work at that barracks have done to bring that development about.

However, I could list a large number of villages that do not have broadband. It is fair to say that while progress has been made, there are gaps, misnomers and, sadly, too many false dawns. All of us have seen examples of where BT—it is sometimes the county council, but primarily it is BT—will suggest, “Oh, it’s all going to be wonderful in this village. We are providing this broadband to the village, or town.” Sadly, however, what happens is that the broadband is not provided, or else there is only partial provision.

[Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to make the point about false dawns; I have had many such instances in my constituency. Does he agree that it adds insult to injury when the communication about what will happen and when problems will be put right is often very poor indeed, and communities are left very uncertain about when they will get broadband and what will happen?

[Guy Opperman]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and I can give examples of that situation. Corbridge Computing Ltd was as excited as I was when Corbridge, a substantial town in my constituency, was told on 19 September 2014 that it had received upgraded broadband. The company asked for the installation the next day; it is just metres from the exchange and various cabinets. To this day, however, it has still not been provided with any upgraded broadband. I could give similar examples, for instance at Dissington Hall. I will open its new rural enterprise hub, which is just outside Ponteland, this Friday, and it is hoped that new businesses will start up there, but to begin with there is the difficulty of not having the internet support that businesses obviously need. In a moment, I will discuss the problems that exist in the village of Matfen.

The reality is that we have false dawns and the situation is extremely difficult, because the lack of communication, and the inability of the roll-out to perform as we were originally told it would, leads to a loss of enthusiasm and support among local communities and constituents.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Stuart]

My hon. Friend is quite right. One of the challenges for the Government is that they are not very good at dealing with small organisations. I have a company offering a service in my area called Quickline. It contacted me and said that it would love to launch a hub in a local pub and then to offer it out to the surrounding community. I was rather rotten to the person who approached me, as I thought they were looking to do it somewhere quite close to Beverley, which would be easier. I said, “What about Holmpton, down near Withernsea?” I thought that it was about the most challenging place I could find for them and, to be fair, they agreed. The George and Dragon had that hub installed a couple of years ago and provided the offer in an area that was otherwise a not spot. It is difficult for Government, who have to secure and assure the use of public money, but we must find a way of dealing with small companies, some of which might go down as well as up. We must take some risks if we are to deliver this goal.

[Nicola Blackwood]

I could not agree more that connectivity for rural businesses is an essential service. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that the rural broadband voucher scheme, which is used in Oxfordshire to provide small businesses with up to £30,000 to pay for superfast broadband connections, has been a really valuable scheme? It expires at the end of March, and it would be helpful to know what might replace it.

[Mr Stuart]

My hon. Friend has put that on the record and I am sure the Minister will try to answer. I hope he has time to answer the many questions that have been raised.

As we know, the 95% delivery target for phase 2 funding is a national target, and obviously there are fears among colleagues that the 5% figure may turn out to be larger than that in their area. The aim was that the funding for that, for which £5 million came to the East Riding, should be matched—it is a shame to see that there is not even a shadow Minister now, just a Whip, however marvellous he may be, which he is, of course. However, East Riding of Yorkshire council is struggling to find the other £5 million, so there is a danger that we will not get the 95% provision.

What can be done to make sure that we target the most hard to reach? It does not matter what we are dealing with, whether it is the DECC work to reduce home energy use or anything else, the tendency is to pick off the low-hanging fruit, the easy targets. Somehow we need to design a system that starts with the most difficult-to-reach properties and works back. That way, we are the least likely to do as my right hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) said, which is subsidise something that would happen anyway and not target the money on those who need it the most. That is important for the future.

It is estimated that by 2024, the Government’s current investment in faster broadband will be boosting rural economies by £275 million every month—not each year—which is about £9 million every day. It makes economic sense as well as good social capital sense to make the investment. Will the Minister update the House on the innovation fund we have heard about today, which is available for alternative technology providers who can then come up with innovative and radical approaches to reach the most remote communities? If he can do that, we will be grateful. Is there a prospect of the fund being increased?

I was delighted to hear that the Minister secured a landmark deal with mobile networks to improve mobile coverage across the UK. I mentioned earlier that, following that agreement, Vodafone will be extending 3G coverage in my constituency from just over 20% now to 99% by 2017. That is a significant move forward.

What are the Government doing to ensure that broadband infrastructure is available in areas where it would not be commercially viable for companies to install it? Also, as the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report today asks, is enough being done to hold BT to its promises? What about commercial plans from providers such as Kingston Communications, in our area? In those areas where the commercial providers said provision was commercial, they have not always fulfilled that, and then moved on. We need to make sure we have a system in place that holds them all to account, but I congratulate the Government on doing so much more, despite the chuntering from the Opposition.