Ministers pressed to fix digital divide in region

Wakefield and 55 per cent in Rotherham and Doncaster.

Coverage is best in North East Lincolnshire at 90 per cent, while 82 per cent of homes and businesses in Leeds and 81 per cent in Bradford have access.

North Lincolnshire is the worst “not spot” for basic speed broadband – classed as two Megabits per second – with 21.8 per cent of homes and businesses missing out. In North Yorkshire, Kirklees, Wakefield and Barnsley at least 17 per cent are left out.

The Government wants every home to have access to at least basic speed broadband by 2015, with 90 per cent of people in each local authority having access to superfast broadband in the best network in Europe by 2015.

But the Yorkshire Post has urged it to go further, with the Give us a Fair Deal campaign calling for every home to be given access.

Councils have been given £530m to deliver superfast broadband to homes and businesses that would otherwise miss out because it is not commercially viable for private companies to do so, although local authorities have to find the rest of the money themselves.

But a Digital Region scheme designed to make South Yorkshire the best-connected area in the country for next-generation technology has hit trouble, with the final stage of roll-out delayed because take-up by homeowners has been lower than expected.

Chi Onwurah MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Innovation and Science, said the Government was failing to deliver on broadband and mobile networks for rural areas. “This is a barrier to economic growth. Labour in government was working towards universal broadband by the end of 2012 but the Tory-led Government has abandoned that goal and the rural economy,” he said.

But Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, added: “We have quadrupled the amount of money available for superfast broadband. We have brought forward the roll-out of superfast broadband from the next Parliament, which is Labour’s policy, to this Parliament.

“And in October the Chancellor announced £150m to get rid of mobile coverage gaps and increase mobile coverage to 99 per cent of the population. I think that our record is pretty good.”

Comment: Page 12.