Investment into broadband should be made from web savings

Claims have been made that the government should invest the money it saves from offering services like online tax returns directly into improving broadband services throughout the UK.

Any savings that the government makes from the use of web-based services should put towards the broadband network in the UK according to the Country, Land and Business Association (CLA), which has heavily criticised a ruling from the HM Revenue and Customs that businesses most complete their tax returns online if they have an annual turnover of more than £100 000.

For many businesses in the more rural parts of the country this simply couldn’t be done due to the poor quality of the broadband services said the CLA and this included the price of access for broadband services and the general state of the broadband network in these areas.

The director of the CLA North, Douglas Chalmers advised “Of course it is more efficient and cost-effective for government to have people process documents such as tax returns online, but it has yet to make available the means by which everyone can do so.”

He went on to add “I am therefore asking how much money government has saved by embracing online administration over the last few years, and suggest that a portion of this saving is invested in providing fast, affordable broadband to every door – including rural areas where people are simply unable to comply with regulation on an equal footing.”

Although the government has laid out its plans to offer every household in the UK a broadband connection of at least 2Mbps by 2012 there has been no clear indication yet of how this will be done and where the money will be coming from to implement a broadband infrastructure upgrade in the more remote and rural parts of the country.

Source – Webuser