4. Will the Leader of the House outline how the Superfast Cymru successor project will engage with properties that were not covered by the initial scheme? OAQ52363

My officials will work closely with the successful delivery partners of the successor scheme to develop a robust, comprehensive communications and engagement plan, details of which will be made available following completion of the procurement process.

Thank you, and whilst I understand that details will be available and when, as you're no doubt aware, I have a considerable number of home owners and business proprietors who have not benefited at all from the current superfast roll-out. It did take some time to drill down to establish—I sent all of these to you, or many of them—and it took some time to realise that they were not included: 4.5 per cent remain unable to receive any form of fibre broadband whilst a further 3.5 per cent received just 2 4Mbps or less, often considerably less, with many receiving just 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps. In such circumstances, it is now becoming impossible to run a business, for children to do homework, or complete required farming forms online. How will we, as Assembly Members, be able to work with you, as the Government, and how will you and the new successor project communicate the property details of those missing out in our communities, who have approached us to do so, because I just think there's been too much wasted time? And with any successor project, I want to be able to get right in there and establish quite quickly whether they will benefit from the next project.

Yes, absolutely, and, as I said when I was at the meeting in your constituency, we very much take that on board and so successor projects are being designed to go to specific properties. So, if you'll remember, the first one was a bit of a fishing pool: they could go to 690,000-plus properties across Wales—any property they wanted—because we had a massive problem when we started off that programme. Now we're down to the last 95,000 premises. So, what we've asked for in the next procurement is that it's targeted, so that those people who are successful in the successor programme, we will know exactly where they're going and why and how much that will cost. So, we will know both who's in and who’s out. For the people who are in, we'll be able to get a communications strategy, so, if there are delays and so on, we will know exactly what the issue was. And for the people who are out, we'll then start to work on bespoke plans for those. Because, I've been very clear: at the moment, with the gain share and the amount of money in, we haven't got quite enough money to get to absolutely everyone, although, with the intermediate investment programme that we're aware of now, we have had another £31 million to put into that, but it still won't be quite enough, so we will have to have those bespoke community solutions as well.

I've already said thank you to the leader of the house for the incredible work that she did at Castle Reach in Kingsmead estate to get Openreach to fund broadband fibre to the premises, which wasn't covered by Superfast Cymru because the estate was built after the programme began. What we didn't know at the time was that that only covered 165 of the houses on the estate. A further 50 now will be trying to get community-access broadband through the Access Broadband Cymru scheme, and I'm working with residents and resident volunteers. Fortunately, the Welsh Government money should fund them fully to cover those houses.

However, there remain houses on that estate, which we didn't know about at the time that she spoke to Openreach, which will still not be covered. I think the only way we're going to get a resolution here is if Openreach and Taylor Wimpey, the developer, work together. So, can I suggest that the leader of the house, if she's willing, meets with me, with Openreach, if they're willing, and with Taylor Wimpey, if they're willing, to finally put this matter to bed on this estate and make sure that that whole estate of Castle Reach in Kingsmead is covered by broadband? And I'm asking her, once again, one more time, to bring that pressure to bear, which she did so well at the end of last year.

Yes, I'm very happy to come and meet them, if that will facilitate the process. There are a number of issues, as Hefin David knows, with new-build estates and the arrangements between the house builder and Openreach—Openreach is the contractor for that estate—and how the connections work. It can be very frustrating for residents as the cabinets are capacitated, as it's called, and rolled out, but I'm more than happy to come to meet with the house builder and with Openreach to see what we can do to facilitate the process.

I've contacted you, as a Minister, in the past, reporting problems with broadband in Ynys Môn. I made an appeal back in April for the latest information. I have another report—I'm sure that I can send you a copy. It's evident that there are a number of areas that have missed out by a hair's breadth, perhaps, on Superfast Cymru—Landdona, Llansadwrn, Brynsiencyn, Cefniwrch and Rhydwyn are some of those that have come to prominence.

In those areas, work had started on preparing for connection. Evidently, there was great disappointment in seeing the programme coming to an end without the work being completed. Are you in a situation to give assurance to these constituents that they will be a priority—that is, that finishing the work that was started previously will be a priority under the new programme, when that comes to pass?

Yes, that is a matter of negotiation between ourselves and British Telecom—Openreach being their contractor, of course, so it's important not to confuse the two as the split occurs. The way that the first scheme worked, to explain to Members—. I actually met with Rhun ap Iorwerth in his constituency, as well, quite a while ago now, actually, wasn't it—it was a few years ago—to talk about some of the issues there. Because of the way that the premises target in the contract worked, and because of how vigorous it was, Openreach built out to a large number more premises than they needed to be sure to hit that figure, because it was a very stringent target in the contract.

That has meant that they have got a lot of infrastructure into the ground. No public money has been paid for any infrastructure that didn't get to completion. So, we have had a long conversation with them around the commercials for that—about who should pay for that. They've invested that money already. Should the public purse pay for the last bit? Why don't they just do it themselves? There's a conversation to be had, and that conversation is running in parallel with the procurement. We'll see what the outcome of those procurements will be.

So, should BT be one of the people who are bidding for the procurement, no doubt they will make some proposals in that. As I said to Janet Finch-Saunders recently, we're asking for specific promises—specific plans for specific premises. So, I'd be very surprised if those weren't included, but we are live in the procurement at the moment, so I haven't got any information about what they're currently proposing.