Rural Phone and Broadband Connectivity

Daniel Kawczynski Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. I guess I was making a different point—that no one should be left out, but that it may be the case that specific demands have to be met by specific technologies.

[Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con)]

As a Member of Parliament from a neighbouring county to my hon. Friend’s, I know that we are acutely aware in Shropshire of the problems affecting our rural communities. I would like to hear his views on this issue. We had to set aside money from our local enterprise partnership in order to deal with broadband issues. Does he agree that such money should come directly from the Government rather than requiring us to set aside money from LEP projects that should be funding other things?

[Jesse Norman]

My hon. Friend’s constituency and mine have the same LEP, so we are both affected by the problem. I believe it is within the scope of LEPs to top up existing money if they think that matters are not proceeding quickly enough. I only wish that they were proceeding more quickly and more thoroughly, in a way that would meet the need that my hon. Friend has described.

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[Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) for his excellent speech, eloquently making points about matters affecting his constituents in rural parts of Herefordshire. Needless to say, many villages in Shropshire are facing similar problems. Let me highlight the village of Pontesbury, the largest village in my constituency. As Members of Parliament are inviting the Minister to go all over the UK, let me invite him to the village of Pontesbury, an important and large village just to the south of Shrewsbury, where it is extremely difficult to get any mobile phone coverage. We have mentioned local businesses, schools and children needing to do homework and other things on computers, and this problem really is holding this village back significantly, so I am pleased to hear about the progress the Government are making.

[Mr Vaizey]

Perhaps I should clarify that when I am accepting invitations for meetings from colleagues I am happy to have them in the House. Let me also say that I hope that my hon. Friend will acknowledge the £28 million invested in superfast broadband in Shropshire, covering at least 50,000 premises—20,000 have already been reached.

--- Later in debate ---

[Daniel Kawczynski]

I will thank the Minister for that. Given what he has said, I will bring Pontesbury parish councillors to meet him here in the House of Commons before the general election, and I thank him for accepting.

Let me make a brief point about the local enterprise partnership, about which I asked my hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire. I believe passionately that the LEP is there to bring Government money in to help with major infrastructure projects—projects that are going to create businesses, jobs and prosperity for the areas they cover. At the request of our council, a considerable amount of money from the LEP is now having to be put towards improving such services in Shropshire. That is clearly taking money away from something that I feel passionate about and that I wish to raise money for, which is the university of Shrewsbury. That money should not come from the LEP. As we are talking about a fundamental right of all our citizens, the money should come directly from the Government. We should not have to distinguish between the projects in the LEP.

I pay tribute to the leader of Shropshire council, Mr Keith Barrow, who has campaigned tirelessly on the need for the Government to provide more funding and resources for broadband and mobile phone coverage in Shropshire. I look forward to meeting the Minister with the parishioners of Pontesbury and I hope that we can make progress on this issue in the months ahead.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—