Chancellor uses budget to reiterate high speed broadband plans

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, used this week’s pre-election budget to reiterate the plans of the Labour party to roll out high speed broadband across the UK.

Both the Conservative and the Labour parties have been announcing their own plans for the roll out of high speed broadband across the UK in the run up to the election, having realised just how vital this issue is for consumers, businesses, and in particular for those that live in areas where there is little or no broadband access at present such as those in rural areas.

This week saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer speaking at the pre-election budget, which covered a range of topics. However, Alistair Darling took the opportunity to once again reiterate the plans of the Labour party to provide universal broadband across the country and implement high speed broadband to ninety percent of homes by 2017.

The chancellor’s speech came just days after a similar speech from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who also reminded potential voters of the plans of the party to improve broadband access and speeds over the coming years.

Darling stated: “The UK has the potential to be a digital world leader. It needs high-speed broadband for rural areas as well as urban, it must not be limited to the well-off.”

However, one thing that the chancellor did not reiterate was the commitment by Gordon Brown to ensure that there was one hundred percent super-fast broadband coverage by 2020 in the UK. One industry official stated: “We are disappointed that the budget has simply repeated the government’s previous target of 90% coverage by 2017.”

Source – BBC