Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Heaton-Jones Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.

[Peter Heaton-Jones (North Devon) (Con)]

8. What steps he is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.

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

17. What steps he is taking to improve broadband and mobile phone coverage in rural areas.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jeremy Wright]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Although I am sure that the bid to which he refers will be considered, I cannot tell him whether it will be approved. However, I can tell him that there will be support from my Department to get as much of the rural parts of our country as possible covered under the existing superfast broadband programmes and adjuncts to it, of which there are several. Then, we must of course look at full fibre roll-out and ensure that that process gets to as many places as possible. If possible, we will do so in an even more efficient way.

[Peter Heaton-Jones]

I welcome the progress we are making, but will my right hon. and learned Friend work with me, with Connecting Devon and Somerset and with the contract holder, Airband, to ensure that North Devon does not have to wait unduly for a fast, reliable and affordable broadband service?

[Jeremy Wright]

Yes is the short answer but, as you would expect, Mr Speaker, I will not leave it as a short answer. All I will say in addition is that there are a number of ways in which we can help. We want to work with local areas, and there may well be very specific local solutions in areas such as North Devon so that we can expand coverage more successfully.