Superfast Broadband

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 16 January 2018.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 2:22, 16 January 2018

First Minister, can I say I think the Superfast Cymru programme has been a public communications disaster? Certainly my constituents have been repeatedly promised fibre broadband only to be told that the upgrade has been delayed, on several occasions. And now they find that they've been left in the lurch because Openreach has run out of time. In a letter to me on 11 January, the leader of the house said, and I quote in the letter: 'The provision of superfast broadband connection, under the Superfast Cymru project, was never promised to any area or community, only scheduled.'

That, to me, is a complete cop-out. Households have been promised repeatedly that they would receive an upgrade by the end of 2017. So, can I ask what is your message to these households? What lessons have you learned, and can you give any assurance that premises that were previously in scope will now be included in any successor scheme?