Openreach CEO calls for law change to allow renters to demand fibre broadband installation

Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Barbara Janke has proposed changing the bill to allow tenants to request the right for fibre broadband installation, ensuring that consent cannot be “unreasonably refused” by landlords and setting a 28-day time limit for property owners to give decisions.

Mr Selley said given the bill already contains similar provisions for tenants to request having a pet, adding the amendment makes sense.

"Isn’t a bit odd that to be saying ‘you can have a budgie but you can’t have brilliant broadband’? It is not very 21st Century because great broadband is pretty much an essential these days but if the landlord isn’t interested or is a vacant landlord then the renter has no right to request and plumb the place with fibre.

"We already have fibre being laid outside of blocks of flats and apartments. But we’ve been unable to get permission to get inside and finish the job.”

Openreach is in the process of rolling out ultrafast full fibre broadband across the country, with the aim of connecting 25 million properties by next year.

Openreach says that in Yorkshire, engineers have had to bypass more than 46,000 flats and apartments for full fibre broadband installations. In Leeds and Bradford alone, while 431,000 homes and businesses have been upgraded to full fibre, 13,000 flats have been missed out because they still need access or wayleave agreements to be signed by landlords and property owners.

Mr Selley said that across the country, one million people are in a similar situation and being “left behind” on digital connectivity.

"It is a huge number of people who could get full fibre because we have the infrastructure outside the building but we haven’t been able to secure the legal right to come into the building and do the plumbing. Fibre is thinner than a hair on a human head, the sheathing is white and when you put it against a white wall, if you are my age you can’t see it. Adding fibre is very, very non-intrusive, it is not like plumbing in a load of pipes.”

He added: “A surprising number of blocks are owned by people who don’t live anywhere near – some are technically owned by a Post Office box in the British Virgin Islands. Often they are just overseas investors, sometimes in tax havens. Or they are just owned by landlords who don’t want the bother but it is denying renters the ability to get full fibre broadband and our commitment is to get that just about everywhere in the UK.”

The previous Tory Government had opposed Openreach’s proposals on the issue, arguing that allowing network operators to enter premises without a landlord’s permission would “significantly and adversely impact on the rights of property owners and occupiers”.

Mr Selley said he had engaged with now Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds on the issue while they were in Opposition.

In September, Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms Sir Chris Bryant gave a speech in which he cited wayleave agreements as a reason why many urban areas are “falling behind rural areas” and becoming broadband “not-spots that have been a bit neglected”.

Mr Selley said while Sir Chris is part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Renters’ Right Bill is being taken forward by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

"It is nothing to do with this particular Government but I do worry that one of the issues with UK Government and the way Parliament works is anything desired by one department but impacting a bill in another department gets tricky. Departments have to coordinate and that’s an added layer of complexity here.”

He said he had spoken to Rachel Reeves about the issue “on more than one occasion” before she became Chancellor.

Last year the Financial Times reported that two alternative network providers had raised concerns with Labour about Openreach’s proposals, with a senior official for London-based Vorboss saying it was seeking an unneeded law change to “overcome a barrier that other fibre builders have navigated through hard work and a commitment to build good relationships with freeholders”.

Mr Selley said Openreach, which employs 2,600 people in Yorkshire, does not accept that argument.

"We are spending £15bn delivering fibre across the UK, we are deploying past 80,000 homes and business premises every week.

"If we were the water company or the electricity, we don’t have to ask permission to go in and upgrade infrastructure inside a block of flats but as the provider of broadband we do. If that process worked, I’d be happy with that. But it only works sometimes with some landlords and doesn’t work for others.

"When you look at the numbers, with 50,000 in Yorkshire, those people could get access to world-class broadband but because of this unpredictable process on seeking out a landlord and getting them to sign, they don’t.

"You can’t live your life without decent broadband these days. I’m really keen we get support in the Lords, the amendment is approved and pushed back to the Commons for consideration.”

Call backed by campaign group

Openreach’s calls for a law change are being back by campaign group Generation Rent, which advocates for the rights of private tenants.

Dan Wilson Craw, Deputy CEO of Generation Rent, said: “It’s concerning that many thousands of private tenants could find themselves digitally excluded in this way, when you consider the crucial role good broadband connectivity plays in so many aspects of our lives – from the flexibility of being able to work from home, to being able to access to health and other online services.

“It seems absurd that tenants can request to keep a pet budgie, but not to have decent broadband.

“A simple amendment to the Renters’ Rights Bill would cost taxpayers nothing and give tenants the right to choose – the same way as millions of other people already do in the UK.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was contacted for comment.