The Yorkshire Post says: Rural broadband investment could transform countless lives in Yorkshire

For many people living in rural areas of Yorkshire, frustratingly-slow broadband speeds are much more than an irritation, they are holding back their hopes of a better life.
An EE engineer installs a 4G antenna to a home in the Cumbrian North Fells. Picture by Mark Runnacles/PA WireAn EE engineer installs a 4G antenna to a home in the Cumbrian North Fells. Picture by Mark Runnacles/PA Wire
An EE engineer installs a 4G antenna to a home in the Cumbrian North Fells. Picture by Mark Runnacles/PA Wire

By not having the same level of internet access as those living in towns and cities, rural businesses can’t be as productive, while daily life, now ever-more reliant on technological advances like online banking, becomes increasingly difficult.

As such, it is heartening to hear Environment Secretary Michael Gove point out that providing superfast broadband to all homes across the country would cost just three per cent of what the nation is spending on HS2.

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In a speech at the NFU’s annual conference, Mr Gove put the matter simply: “It’s ridiculous that you can get better mobile phone coverage in Kenya than in parts of Kent. Unjustifiable that in the country that first guaranteed universal mail provision, invented the telephone and television and pioneered the World Wide Web that broadband provision is so patchy and poor in so many areas.”

The Environment Secretary pointed out that public spending on improving rural broadband should not be seen as a “subsidy” from city-dwellers to the countryside, given those living in more remote areas are producing food and protecting the landscape for generations to come.

Mr Gove suggested money for introducing universal broadband could come after Brexit from what the country now sends to the EU. But there should be no delay in starting this work as soon as possible to get rural communities up to speed with the modern world.