Premier promises superfast broadband for every home

Mr Brown revealed the plans in a speech yesterday and claimed that improved Internet access could slash billions from public service costs and create more than 250,000 jobs.

Mr Brown also promised to create a single website bringing together all Government and public sector services and said a 6-a-year landline levy to pay for the proposals was crucial to ensuring rural areas did not lag behind.

He said: "Superfast broadband is the electricity of the digital age, and I believe it must be for all, not just for some."

The benefits would be particularly keenly felt in Yorkshire which has the lowest rates of Internet connection in the country – 64 per cent of people online compared with a national average of 71 per cent.

Vast swathes of East and North Yorkshire are still unable to get broadband at all.

The business development manager for the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, Robert Ling, said: "This is an important announcement and is crucial to the region's future.

"There are a lot of rural areas that cannot get broadband in Yorkshire despite a real appetite for it and we have been working hard to address this."

Mr Brown's speech follows news that York Council is this week set to strike a multi-million-pound deal to become the first "fibrecity" in the north of England, providing every home and business with free 100 megabytes per second Internet access, the fastest in Britain.

The leader of the authority's Labour group, David Scott, said: "As a region we need to be embracing the Internet and this is the future, we have got to be sure that we offer people the complete package.

"This would have a huge impact on York, we are competing with other cities and we cannot get left behind."

A report containing details of the deal between York Council and Fibrecity Holdings, which is already developing the services in Dundee and Bournemouth, is set to be agreed by the council's executive next week.

Both parties would then carry out a six-month feasibility study before pushing ahead with building the network, which is likely to take a further two years.

The Prime Minister's announcement is a welcome boost for the region after the Yorkshire Post revealed yesterday that the publicly-funded 100m Digital Region scheme to bring high-speed broadband to homes and businesses across South Yorkshire had missed its launch deadline of this month as negotiations drag on with internet providers.

Labour has already pledged to guarantee nearly every household access to at least 2Mbps by 2012, but Mr Brown said he eventually wanted to increase that to 100 per cent access to superfast broadband.

The Tories have also promised to provide universal access to superfast broadband - using digital switchover cash from the BBC licence fee to make up any shortfalls in market-led provision.