I recently led a Westminster Hall debate on Rural Broadband. Broadband is now woven into almost every part of daily life. Families rely on it to work, learn and access services. Businesses rely on it to trade, communicate and grow. Communities rely on it to stay connected. The idea that we once managed without it misses the point entirely. Times change, and with them the definition of what counts as a basic utility.
When I was a child, I remember family friends talking about electricity finally reaching their village in the 1940s. Today, none of us would accept a community being left without a reliable electricity supply. Broadband is heading in exactly the same direction. It underpins modern life in much the same way and yet too many rural communities are still being asked to make do with connections that simply are not fit for purpose.
I represent a Somerset constituency that is both rural and urban, which means I see this divide clearly. In towns, broadband is often taken for granted. In villages and hamlets, it is a constant source of frustration. Last year I surveyed residents across the rural parts of my constituency, asking them to rate their broadband on speed, reliability, customer service and value for money. Unsurprisingly, those in larger villages reported the best service, and those in the most remote rural areas reported the worst. This is both inconvenient and damaging. We cannot expect rural businesses to survive, let alone thrive, if they are cut off from the digital world that the rest of the country takes for granted. Farmers and small business owners are required to deal with Government, banks and suppliers almost entirely online, yet are forced to do so with slow speeds, unreliable connections and constant dropouts.
One constituent, Sue Felstead, runs a restaurant at Greenway Farm in Wembdon. Her business depended on broadband for card payments, music and basic operations, yet she was stuck with a download speed of just 2 megabits per second. Customers could not pay because the system would crash. Music would cut out halfway through a song. Eventually, she was told by BT that she would be better off installing Starlink. That advice alone should ring alarm bells. In the end, it cost her £1,500 just to get a connection that worked.
Families feel the impact too. Children struggle with online learning. Access to healthcare services becomes more difficult. Remote working opportunities, which could be a lifeline for rural areas, remain out of reach. Young people are placed at a disadvantage simply because of where they live.
There is no doubt that progress has been made nationally. Full fibre coverage has risen dramatically in recent years, from just 6% of households in 2018 to around 78% today. But we need to get that up to 100%. That transformation came from a clear strategy by the previous Conservative government that encouraged competition and investment.
In Somerset, the problems have been particularly acute. Airband was contracted to deliver fibre to more than 55,000 homes across Devon and Somerset, only to descope thousands and commit to fewer than half that number. More than 3,000 properties in my constituency were left in limbo. While Openreach has since stepped in, many residents are still facing unacceptable delays, with some villages being told they may have to wait until 2030 or beyond.
That simply is not good enough. Waiting another decade for a basic service is not a serious answer to the challenges rural communities face. There are also real concerns about whether current funding is sufficient to meet even the Government’s own targets, which already feel painfully slow from a rural perspective.
My constituents in remote rural areas feel let down by this Government. They have had to deal with the family farm tax and the uncertainty that has created. They have had to deal with the sustainable farming incentive being withdrawn without any notice whatsoever by an utterly incompetent Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As such, this issue of rural broadband is very important if my residents are to have confidence that they can live, enjoy life and run thriving businesses in the remote rural areas in Somerset.
