Net gain as rural areas to be given priority for broadband

Hear informed debate on this story in our Country Week podcast

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman is to call a summit with broadband providers to thrash out how parts of the countryside can be "prioritised" in the roll-out of superfast access.

Countryside campaigners fear slow – or even non-existent – access to broadband in rural areas is costing the economy hundreds of millions of pounds by hampering small businesses and hindering opportunities for young people to learn at home. But Ms Spelman's pledge offers hope that the new Government is ready to ensure the countryside gets a fair deal.

The agreement thrashed out between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promises measures to ensure the "rapid" roll-out of superfast broadband - offering access 10 times faster than many people currently enjoy – "across the country".

It adds: "We will ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to deliver such broadband, and we will seek to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas.

"If necessary, we will consider using the part of the TV licence fee that is supporting the digital switchover to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach."

But Ms Spelman has gone further, seizing on a report by Rural Advocate Stuart Burgess earlier this year, which revealed how a lack of broadband access was driving young people out of the countryside, to promise rural areas would be "prioritised".

"We know from the Rural Advocate's report earlier this year that a lack of broadband access is restricting the opportunities which exist for young people who live in the countryside.

"We know, too, this hampers the work of farmers in many areas and isolates many other groups," she said.

"So we will prioritise the roll-out of broadband to rural neighbourhoods, bringing everyone the same benefits and opportunities of digital technology which so many of us already enjoy."

Superfast broadband is generally