Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of broadband speed and coverage on local economies.

Superfast broadband is now available to over 80% of UK homes and businesses, up from 45% in 2010. The UK Broadband Impact Study - Impact Report estimated that the availability and take-up of faster broadband speeds through programmes that had been delivered or were in the delivery phase at that time will add about £17 billion to the UK’s annual Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2024. This level of uplift contributes an average of 0.07 percentage points to real annual GVA growth over this period. It also demonstrated that the benefits will be shared across the UK, helping the rebalancing of our economy.