Darling confirms broadband tax to go ahead

In this pre-election budget speech this week the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, confirms that the fifty pence a month broadband tax in the UK is to go ahead.

In this week’s pre-election budget report the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, brought up the various plans of the Labour party with regards to improving broadband access and speeds in the UK. The Chancellor also took the opportunity to confirm that the government was pressing ahead with the controversial broadband tax.

The broadband tax, which will involve charging fifty pence a month on landlines in order to raise funding for the implementation of high speed broadband across the UK, has been at the centre of controversy for some time, since it was proposed last year by the Labour government. The Conservative party has said that it would scrap the plan if it gets into power, but as things stand it will now come into force later this year.

In his speech Darling said that the aim of the Labour government was to turn the UK into a “world leader in the digital economy”. He also added: “Realising this ambition would create thousands of new businesses and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. It will also open the way for public services to be delivered more effectively and at lower cost. Access to high-speed broadband is essential to deliver these goals.”

However, Tory officials have said that the broadband tax will end up causing exclusion for lower income families, and that two hundred thousand low income households could end up being digitally excluded because they cannot afford the tax. Gordon Brown, on the other hand, has said that the tax will cost households the price of a pint of milk yet the benefits will be widespread for both consumers and businesses.

Source – Cable