Why it’s time to end the absurdity of broadband exclusion suffered by many renters - Ismail Mulla

Whether that is banking, good luck finding a branch on the high street, or paying utility bills, or arranging an appointment with the GP, you need access to the internet.

Post-pandemic a lot of people now also need a stable internet connection to be able to work with the majority of office employees either working a part or the whole of the week from home.

So you can see the importance of fibre broadband across the board. It is no less of an utility than water or electricity.

The other irrefutable fact is that housing policy over the decades in this country has consigned a whole generation to a lifetime of renting.

No matter how hard young people try, it is bordering on the impossible for them to get a foot on the housing ladder. This is a scandal in itself and is creating problems for many towns and villages where the age demographic has been skewed.

But generation rent, as it is being dubbed, needs access to the fibre broadband just as much as homeowners do.

The Government’s Renters’ Rights Bill is to be welcomed. If you’re going to have a generation of renters then they need better protection. However, the bill contains provisions for allowing tenants to request keeping a pet but there’s nothing about fibre broadband.

The absurdity of the situation was highlighted by the CEO of Openreach in The Yorkshire Post last weekend. Clive Selley said: "Isn't it 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.”

Companies like Openreach are laying fibre outside blocks of flats and apartments but can’t get the permission to go inside and complete the job.

Openreach says that in Yorkshire engineers have had to bypass more than 46,000 flats and apartments for full fibre broadband installations.

That is just folly. It’s indicative of the disjointed approach to infrastructure that is blighting Britain.

Cynics will say that network providers should build better relationships with freeholders but it isn’t always that simple. But a fair few of these blocks are owned by either disinterested landlords or overseas investors.

That is why Baroness Barbara Janke’s proposal to change the bill to allow tenants to request the right for fibre broadband installation should be supported. It would ensure that consent cannot be “unreasonably refused” by landlords and set a 28-day time limit for property owners to give decisions.

The Government has rightly set its sights on growing the economy but if Britain is to achieve that growth then connectivity will be key.

Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Stantec, showed that Openreach’s full fibre rollout has the potential to contribute up to £66bn to the UK economy in 2029.

While it’s obvious why Openreach would support a change to the bill, support has also come from campaign group Generation Rent, which advocate for the rights of private renters in the UK.

Dan Wilson Craw, Deputy CEO of Generation Rent, says that “thousands of private tenants could find themselves digitally excluded”.

That is what is at stake. The exclusion of many renters, some who already find themselves in a precarious situation.

It is high time that fibre broadband was also treated as a utility. Landlords would never be allowed to prevent tenants from getting access to electricity and water so why should that be the case when it comes to broadband?

As Mr Wilson Craw says “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, which is taking forward the Renters’ Rights Bill, should take this opportunity to level up broadband connectivity for many renters.