8. Will the Leader of the House provide an update on the number of premises that have benefited from the Superfast Cymru project in Islwyn? OAQ51803

Although we don't hold information specifically for Islwyn, under the Superfast Cymru project we have provided access to fast fibre broadband to 27,206 premises across all parts of Caerphilly county borough, which equates to just over 92 per cent completion. 

Diolch. Since the project began in 2013, the availability of superfast broadband across Wales has more than doubled. Leader of the house, is the Welsh Government able to identify the percentage of Islwyn premises that are now covered by superfast broadband, and what further actions does the Government intend to take to ensure that all premises in my constituency are covered? 

We've got, as I said, a 92 per cent completion rate at the moment. I'm not too sure if that's actually Islwyn, because it's across Caerphilly; we don't hold them in constituency boundaries in that way. But, as I said earlier, we plan to introduce an additional novel scheme that supports communities that demonstrate tangible demand, particularly targeting communities that are not currently covered by suppliers in response to the successor scheme that was outlined by Mark Isherwood in his earlier question. So, if Rhianon Passmore knows of any specific communities that have that issue, I'd be more than happy to come and visit them with her. Otherwise, I'm sure that most parts of Islwyn will be picked up under the successor programme by the companies that are currently expressing an interest.  

Leader of the house, I've been informed that Caerphilly County Borough Council is holding up the installation of ultrafast broadband by charging extortionate planning fees and ground rental for the ultrafast boxes. This endangers ultrafast provision, not just in Caerphilly, including Islwyn, but in surrounding areas as well. Would you ensure that Caerphilly stops endangering provision of ultrafast broadband in this way?   

We are aware that there's an issue with competitor broadband schemes in Caerphilly. We do encourage as much competition as possible in the market in order to get the best possible prices, so we are aware of the issue in Caerphilly over cabinet siting and some of the planning issues, and my officials are in discussion with Caerphilly about that matter.