7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on providing broadband connections to new-build properties? OAQ52350

Yes. New agreements are in place between connectivity providers and home builders that will enable a superfast and full fibre service to be deployed from the outset. We are monitoring progress and we will identify whether we need any further measures to be put in place.

Well, thank you for that answer. I've raised with you previously the issue of Dyffryn y Coed, a new estate in Church Village in my constituency. The problem appears to be this: they only have a copper connection although an earlier part of the estate actually has fibre; a lot of people living there require high-speed broadband because of their work in order to do that. The problem appears to be that, seven or eight years ago, a planning application was made, permission was given and that was the end of the matter. It's left to BT to then decide what they're going to connect, what they think is appropriate, and it's now left to the residents to either persuade BT to pay for it or to apply for grants to go through a bureaucratic process in order to get that higher speed broadband, which they need. It seems to me that it should be a matter of course that the highest available speed that is reasonably available should be provided. But the system appears to be breaking down because there's no obligation on either the local authority or on BT, and the house developer, obviously, is somewhere within the middle of all that. What can be done to actually ensure that, where these new developments take place, there are proper levels of broadband actually provided; that there is an obligation on the providers, that the system actually works to ensure that that happens?

Yes. It's a fundamental small-p political problem because this service is an infrastructure, but the UK Government persists in regarding it as a luxury product that you can buy if you want it, and that's the fundamental difficulty. So, it isn't treated as an infrastructure, or a public service that people require, it is treated as a sort of nice-to-have, which it clearly isn't.

The head of planning has recently written to local authorities reminding them that they can include planning obligations for new build. We have had an agreement with some of the major providers to do that, and as I said, we are monitoring that, but if you're aware of specific estates that were built in between the intervention area and now, then we'll be looking to include those in the new procurements or to get bespoke solutions for those estates. So, it's worth me having a conversation with you, or with my officials, to see if we can find a bespoke solution for that particular problem. But fundamentally, the issue is one of how you politically view this particular service, and I take the view, fundamentally, that it should be an infrastructure.