Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Leigh Excerpts

Thursday 21st December 2017 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I was delighted to see that the Manchester combined authority, which includes Rochdale, received £250,000 from the libraries opportunities for everyone fund. I will continue to work with the libraries taskforce to extend benchmarks, toolkits and best practices, and to look at different models of delivering services to ensure that libraries continue to thrive, as we see in Rochdale.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

6. What recent assessment she has made of progress towards the target of 95% superfast broadband coverage.

[Lee Rowley (North East Derbyshire) (Con)]

13. What recent assessment she has made of progress towards the target of 95% superfast broadband coverage.

[Sir Edward Leigh]

When it comes to broadband in rural Lincolnshire, there is not much of a season of good will. The fact is that even 150 years ago, the Post Office could roll out a universal service—it did not matter where people lived—but in many rural villages in Lincolnshire, including mine, the broadband is appalling. People are trying to do business in these villages, so will the Minister get his skates on and get BT to roll out broadband to them?

[Matt Hancock]

My hon. Friend is quite right, and I have some Christmas cheer for people in Lincolnshire who want better broadband, because yesterday we announced that we are taking forward the legal guarantee for decent high-speed broadband under the universal service obligation. All I can say on this, Mr Speaker, is that all I want for Christmas is USO.