BT Broadband Provision: Local Businesses

Debate between Stuart Blair Donaldson and Helen Goodman

Thursday 10th March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Helen Goodman]

The hon. Gentleman is right. BT is extremely profitable. The industry is, of course, regulated by Ofcom but there must be a question mark about whether it is using its resources as effectively as possible. It is clear that the rural areas are particularly disadvantaged.

[Stuart Blair Donaldson (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (SNP)]

The hon. Lady is making a fantastic speech. Like all other hon. Members who have contributed, I think we are all in the same boat. In my rural constituency, rural business parks and centres that are looking to expand and already have connections are finding it incredibly difficult just to connect an extra building. Does the hon. Lady agree that it is completely unacceptable that they have to wait months—sometimes going into years—for a simple extension to their existing line?

[Helen Goodman]

Yes, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and, in a way, that is rather similar to the William Smith example I gave. These are not one-off examples. The Countryside Alliance has pointed out that

“8% of premises in the UK (2.4 million) are connected to lines that are unable to receive broadband speeds above the proposed Universal Service Obligation of 10Mbit/s. Many of these are in rural areas, where about 48% of premises…are unable to receive speeds above 10Mbit/s.”

That is 1.5 million people in the countryside who are unable to receive those speeds.

We all know that the Minister is a very nice man. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] He has helped many of us—faute de mieux—with our particular cases. I agree with what he said yesterday. I think he is right, but I am not wholly sympathetic because he is being forced to intervene as if he were a Minister in a Soviet, centrally-planned economy, on a case-by-case basis. That is because the policy framework set up by this Government, in which I think he had some hand, has not worked properly, and that goes back to the point made by the hon. Member for Angus (Mike Weir).

The Government made the areas for the contracts for the roll-out of broadband too small to be economic for any operators apart from BT to bid for them. That is why BT won all the contracts, maintains a monopoly, faces no competition, feels under no pressure and serves our constituents so badly. Everybody will probably welcome Ofcom’s proposals for changes to the governance of Openreach, particularly better standards of service to small businesses, and compensation when those standards are not met.

As well as keeping the pressure up on BT, which I want the Minister to do, we need him to talk to his colleagues in other Departments because the Government’s policy of digital by default is not serving rural communities very well. I had yet another complacent response from Treasury Ministers, saying that 98% of small and medium-sized enterprises submit their tax online. I bet that is only because they are not doing it at home because they go along to an accountant in a small town some way away and pay that person to do the submission online.

We have the same problem with the Rural Payments Agency. Once again, the Public Accounts Committee has had to look into the problem. I see that the Chair of the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is in Westminster Hall this afternoon. He knows that the treatment of farmers by the Rural Payments Agency—expecting them to monitor their cattle movements and supply all the information online—is hopeless. I ask the Minister to go back to his colleagues to get some change of attitude from them.