Rural Phone and Broadband Connectivity

Mark Field Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered rural phone and broadband connectivity.

Whatever the pros and cons of the argument on the length of the previous debate, on which views are widely held, shared and disputed, it is entirely appropriate that we should have a three-hour debate on rural phone and broadband connectivity, which is important to many people in this country. The debate follows one in Westminster Hall on 6 January. That debate was only 30 minutes long, but the Minister and I took 11 interventions. I am delighted by the turnout of colleagues on both sides of the House in the Chamber today. I specifically thank the Backbench Business Committee for its support in allowing us this time. I pay tribute to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for its excellent reports on rural communities, which was published last year, and on rural broadband and digital-only services, which was published just this morning.

Before Christmas, I surveyed more than 1,100 people living and working in my constituency in Herefordshire on mobile not spots. The overwhelming majority felt that that was a serious or very serious concern to them. Local businesses feel exactly the same way. In one recent survey in Herefordshire, almost 98% of local business responded to say that they had specific problems with mobile coverage.

[Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

My hon. Friend will appreciate that my seat is anything but rural, but the self-same problems of not spots relating to broadband connectivity affect even our biggest cities. As many will recognise from complaints by their staff, that applies even here in the Palace of Westminster in this part of SW1. I accept that this is a rural debate, but the issue affects the whole of the UK.

[Jesse Norman]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for making the very important point that while these are especially difficult issues in rural areas, they are not confined to them. If it is possible to have a problem with mobile connectivity in SW1, I invite him to consider what it is like in HR1.

The issue is not merely bad mobile and broadband coverage, but the compounded effect of both, especially on isolated communities in rural areas such as my own. To take just one example, Vodafone recently acknowledged to me that it has only 55% coverage for 3G mobile data services in Herefordshire. Is it any wonder that bad connectivity is such a source of continuing frustration?