4. Statement by the Leader of the House: Superfast Cymru

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:48 pm on 30 January 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:48, 30 January 2018

Thank you very much for those comments. Just to emphasise yet again that rural areas are not being left out; they are the ones served by this contract. So, I can assure you that I've a postbag full of people who are very cheesed off indeed with commercial roll-out in the centre of Swansea who I cannot help at all, because this is a rural programme, delivering broadband to areas that would never have got it without Government intervention. I do think it's important, as—. Obviously, I'm happy to deal with the frustrations of those people who haven't got it, but I will emphasise, Deputy Presiding Officer, that we have got it to not far short of 700,000 premises in Wales who would never have got a service under any commercial roll-out. So, this is an incredible success for Wales. That takes nothing away from the frustration of those at the end, but it nevertheless is a huge success, and we have the biggest connectivity of any devolved nation, so it's a very important thing to say.

There was no target for Monmouthshire, so they can't have been 20 per cent below it. There was no such target. The target has always been for the whole of Wales. I've never specified any target for any area of Wales in the first phase. We are going to be addressing that in the second phase. We will have specific targets for specific communities and premises in the second phase because now we know exactly where they are, and we're able to get bids back saying exactly who will get to what premises. So, that will not be the case in the future; we will have a different programme. But, in the first phase, there was no target for Monmouthshire; it was only ever for the whole of Wales.

I'm more than happy to continue my tour of Wales to listen to specific issues and to have specific solutions put to me. We will be continuing all our voucher schemes, which are able to be combined into community schemes where necessary so that we can continue to get to as many people as possible.