Item 9 on our agenda this afternoon is a debate on digital connectivity, and I call on the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport to move the motion—Lee Waters.

The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2 and 3 in the name of Darren Millar, and amendment 4 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Motion NDM7180 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Recognises the work undertaken by the Welsh Government since 2012 to improve digital connectivity across Wales through the Superfast Cymru programme, with 733,000 premises now having access to fast fibre broadband.

2. Notes that the Welsh Government has undertaken this work in a non-devolved area owing to the failure of the UK Government at that time to sufficiently invest where the commercial market would not provide.

3. Calls on the UK Government to fulfil its responsibilities and invest in gigabit-capable broadband that meets the needs of homes and businesses in Wales ensuring that:

a) funding reflects the challenges of deploying digital infrastructure in Wales;

b) delivery takes an ‘outside-in’ approach providing connectivity to those premises in rural and very rural areas; and

c) connectivity is provided first to those premises which cannot receive fast broadband.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. If I want to check my bank balance, listen to music, watch a film or, indeed, turn my heating on, I instinctively get out my smartphone, and I can do that because I can rely on fast broadband coverage. Access to reliable and fast broadband is increasingly a necessity, but the responsibility for providing it is not ours; it is the UK Government's. But without the direct intervention of the Welsh Government, over 50 per cent of people in Wales would not have access to fast fibre broadband.

Telecommunications is not devolved, but just as we've had to do with rail investment, the Welsh Government have diverted money from building schools and hospitals because the Government that should have acted did not. Using EU money and our own funds, we stepped in, and on the twentieth anniversary of the creation of a devolved Government, we can say with confidence that, without devolution, 730,000 premises across Wales would not have access to fast broadband. And we continue to deliver more. We're on course to provide full fibre connectivity to a further 26,000 premises by 2021, and we are talking to Openreach about increasing that number. But as my ministerial inbox demonstrates, there are still people and communities who are not yet connected.

Now, the Prime Minister has belatedly said that there'll be a gigabit broadband sprouting in every home by the end of 2025. We don't yet know how this'll be achieved or, indeed, the detail of how it'll be funded. And even if it does come about, the scheme will not start for another four years, and it will not be complete for another 14 years, two years after experts predict we'll see driverless cars on our roads—cars that won't move without digital connectivity. Nevertheless, Llywydd, we welcome the fact the UK Government does now intend to act, and we stand ready to work alongside them to make sure that if they do follow through, the needs of the Welsh communities are understood and acted upon.

It's vital that all communities are reached, and we know from our own superfast programme that the costs of reaching rural communities is higher and the commercial returns lower. And we are concerned that left to themselves, commercial companies will focus first on boosting the speeds of customers in urban areas who already have good broadband. Just as in the previous generation of technological advancement, it took extra investment and engineering know-how to get good television coverage to all of Wales, and the same is true again with broadband and mobile. Private companies will never do this because it simply isn't profitable, so the UK Government has to take bold action to make sure that everyone is connected and can take part in the fourth industrial revolution.

So, we'll be seeking assurances that the amount of funding from the UK Government is enough to reach all parts of Wales. And based on what they have said, action will not begin to be taken until 2023 at the earliest, so, even though this is not a devolved area, we will continue to act to make sure that the people of Wales are connected to this vital infrastructure, and we will focus our efforts on where both the private sector and the UK Government are not acting. So, building on the work that we have been doing, I can today announce that we will be creating a new £10 million fund to help the final 5 per cent of people who are still online. And because of the innovative way that we've negotiated our contract with BT—and I must pay tribute to my predecessor, Julie James, and our dedicated team of officials—we are receiving a gainshare from the Superfast Cymru contract, which we always intended to use to further advance broadband delivery across Wales.

Now, this fund will not just be for rural areas, but it'll be open to any community in Wales that has not yet been reached by our superfast scheme. I want to work with local authorities and other partners to design the fund in a way that'll best help them to respond to the needs of the communities to get them connected. Now, some councils are already taking the initiative to help people access grants, and I want to see how we can scale that to a regional level. Representatives from local authorities and my officials have already come together to form a digital rural infrastructure taskforce to recommend practical actions that can be taken in the short term to address particular challenges in rural Wales. We're also working alongside local authorities to attract funding via the UK Government's local full fibre network and rural gigabit connectivity schemes to upgrade copper connections to public sector buildings. And this will help drive full fibre into the heart of local communities, and this collaborative working will also develop the relationships and lay the foundations for the new project.

I also, Dirprwy Lywydd, want to see how we can encourage community groups and social enterprises like those in Michaelston-y-fedw, west of Newport, where locals have come together to lay their own fibre, and to harness technological innovation like the project I visited in Monmouthshire where communities have been connected to broadband by using television signals and existing masts while they wait for full fibre connections to be made viable in the longer term. In summary, I want to make it easier to get people connected who've not yet been reached by our significant investment and I want to—[Interruption.] Yes, of course.

It's a positive point. I heard about your visit to Monmouthshire and I'm very pleased that you saw that. I think there's some really good innovative stuff going on not just there, but across Wales in terms of using tv signals and other things. Monmouthshire is also being used as the 5G test bed, which, I'm sure you'd agree, is another good innovation and hopefully we can get that rolled out across Wales when it's up and running and fully functional as well.

Absolutely. On the case of 5G, Simon Gibson of an expert panel has done some great work in putting together a bid that is now with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to focus on Monmouthshire and the Heads of the Valleys to roll out a rural focus on 5G and its application in artificial intelligence. And the work of Michaelston-y-fedw is a brilliant example of what communities can do, developing a far better offer than the commercial offer would've provided, far cheaper for them as an ongoing cost but that requires a level of social capital that not every community has. There's a collection of individuals in that village that you wouldn't find in every village, with project management experience and various know-how and wherewithal. So, what we want to do is use that kind of unconventional approach where there is community demand, but to help people do it and to use social enterprises to do that where we think there's an opportunity. So, that's what we want to be looking at next to harness that social innovation and make that easier to do, rather than simply be reliant upon BT the whole time and their conventional roll-out programme. We want to see a multitude of approaches, especially in those areas where the commercial market is not reaching and is not likely to reach for some time.

So, just to conclude, Dirprwy Lywydd, that's the enthusiasm and commitment that I want to harness from our communities, and, as the recent review of digital innovation by Professor Phil Brown reminded us, it's essential that we adapt our economy and people to harnessing the opportunities presented by the disruption of the fourth industrial revolution, and making sure that people in all parts of Wales are digitally connected is a fundamental first step to doing that. Diolch.

Thank you. I have selected four amendment to the motion. I call on Russell George to move amendments 1, 2 and 3, tabled in the name of Darren Millar. Russell.

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

Delete point 2 and replace with:

Regrets:

a) the failure of the Welsh Government to deliver on its promise to ensure that all residential and business premises would have next generation broadband by 2015;

b) that some communities have been left with stranded assets following the completion of Superfast Cymru phase 1;

c) the lack of a seamless transition between the deployment of phase one and phase two of the Superfast Cymru scheme;

d) the lack of a clear timetable for the delivery of high speed broadband to remaining premises.

Amendment 2—Darren Millar

Delete point 3 and replace with: 

Welcomes:

a) the UK Government’s introduction of a universal service obligation (USO) which will give eligible homes and businesses in the UK a clear, enforceable right to request a decent and affordable broadband connection by March 2020;

b) the UK Government’s investment to provide superfast broadband coverage and its stimulation for commercial investment in full fibre connections in both rural and urban locations across the whole of the UK;

c) the Chancellor’s recent £5 billion commitment to fund gigabit-capable deployment to 20 per cent of the hardest to reach premises through an 'Outside-In' approach;

d) the recent £1 billion announcement by the UK Government and the UK’s four mobile network operators to build a shared rural network that would see 4G mobile coverage extended to 95 per cent of the UK’s landmass;

e) the Home Office’s commitment to build the additional network infrastructure required to deliver the new emergency service network (ESN) and extended area services (EAS) Programme, which will provide a commercial 4G service in rural areas of Wales which would not be otherwise served.

Amendment 3—Darren Millar

Add as new point at end of motion:

Calls upon the Welsh Government to:

a) issue quarterly updates showing, for each local authority area, the number of premises connected under Phase 2 of the Superfast Cymru contract;

b) work with the UK Government to collaborate with commercial partners to prioritise the digital connectivity of those premises in Wales which do not have access to reliable high speed broadband services.

Amendments 1, 2 and 3 moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the amendments in the name of my colleague Darren Millar. I would agree with the Deputy Minister's opening comments when he said that broadband is now not a luxury; it's part of everyday life. It's like gas and electricity, and it's expected. I would agree with the Deputy Minister in his opening comments.

The Deputy Minister made a number of references to the fact that this is not a devolved area, but I would point out that the Labour Party made a manifesto commitment to ensure that all residential and business premises would have next generation broadband by 2015, a manifesto commitment that has not been delivered.

Now, since the introduction of the Superfast Cymru scheme, I would say we have seen a mixed picture when it comes to the narrowing of the digital divide between those in urban and rural areas of Wales. For example, Ofcom's 'Connected Nations' report conducted a case study that focused on my constituency, actually, as it happens, on digital connectivity, probably because I'm perhaps one of those Members who contacts them more than others. It found that a higher proportion of premises in Montgomeryshire are without access to so-called decent broadband of 10 Mbps, compared with the average for Wales, and that, in rural parts of Montgomeryshire, the gulf between the haves and have-nots rises further. Whilst some homes and businesses benefit from ultrafast fibre-to-premises technology, some have nothing at all.

And the situation is, of course, not unique to Powys at all—I'm not suggesting that. But this urban-rural digital divide across Wales has a huge detrimental impact on, of course, Wales's rural economy. It has to be a matter of great regret that some communities have been left stranded following the conclusion of phase 1 of the Superfast Cymru project, and while I appreciate that no public money has been spent on the so-called stranded assets that we see across our communities, it is incredibly frustrating for people to see fibre cables hanging from poles just metres away from their homes, and this ought to be something that is addressed by the Welsh Government. I think the Welsh Government has a role to play in compelling Openreach to act.

I also believe that there should have been a seamless transition between phase 1 and phase 2 of the Superfast Cymru scheme. The delay in commissioning and implementing phase 2, and the relative lack of specific information on the timetable for that delivery of a broadband upgrade on the Welsh Government and Openreach's broadband checkers, have both served to frustrate, and frustrate people who remain without any broadband at all, let alone high-speed broadband.

I was pleased to hear the Minister's announcement of a fund of—was it £5 million or £10 million?—£10 million pounds to deal with that last 5 per cent. I'm genuinely in two minds whether to tell my constituents of this great news, because I made that mistake with phase 2. I told my constituents who weren't serviced in phase 1, 'Look, something else is coming. This is positive, don't worry, you're going to be serviced,' and that didn't happen. So, I'm kind of reluctant to do that. I want the Minister to try and persuade me so that I do tell my constituents of this great new £10 million fund and that they will be serviced in that last 5 per cent.

Now, turning to some of our points in amendment 2, among the measures taken by the UK Government in recent times, we have seen the introduction of a universal service obligation, a £5 billion commitment to fund gigabit-capable deployment to 20 per cent of the hardest-to-reach premises through an outside-in approach, a £1 billion announcement that will bring about a shared rural mobile network that would see 4G mobile coverage extend to 95 per cent of the UK, and funding of up to £7 million to deliver full fibre-optic broadband in north Wales. Now, what we have also seen is updated guidance in England and Scotland, and I would invite the Minister to use the devolved policy levers at the Welsh Government's disposal to commit a public date by which much-needed reforms will be delivered so that rural Wales doesn't fall further behind England and Scotland. It is frustrating to hear the Minister talking about some of the devolved responsibilities. Many of the levers are in the hands of the Welsh Government, and they have not been used. That's why we have fallen behind other areas of the UK. [Interruption.] Well, there is planning, and other issues are devolved.

I have also been disappointed by the Welsh Government's mobile action plan. I don't want to say this, but it is a document that's got lots of warm words. I want it to be more than that, but rather than any concrete commitments, unfortunately, it looks like the drive behind that mobile action plan has disappeared. I would also like to see—. I can see that I'm out of time, Deputy Presiding Officer. So, in that case, I won't go on to say what I would like to see, unfortunately. Hopefully, I can get that in a bit later on. Thank you.

Thank you. Can I call Rhun ap Iorwerth to move amendment 4, tabled in his own name?

Amendment 4—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Calls on better information to be provided—through a 'one stop shop'—to those who are not connected to the Superfast Cymru programme, about how they can access a fast internet connection.

Amendment 4 moved.

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd. I think it is fair to recognise that the Welsh Government is undertaking work in a non-devolved area here. But, I don't think that means that we should give a free ride to the Welsh Government, in that it does have influence in areas through grant funding, for example, including grants for individuals through Access Broadband Cymru, grants for telecommunications providers, and the use of other devolved powers, such as the planning system, which is very, very important and can be hugely powerful as a tool to deliver digital investment. Business rate relief is also something that can be used to stimulate investment in digital networks.

A 2017 report by the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, after its inquiry into digital infrastructure in Wales, regarding Superfast Cymru, concluded:

'Generally speaking, the view from stakeholders is that the Welsh Government’s Superfast Cymru project has delivered adequately in terms of the roll-out of infrastructure, but that there have been shortcomings in the way that the project has been communicated to those in the areas where it is active.'

That was certainly a problem and remains so. Of course, over the past five years, the gap between superfast broadband availability in Wales and the UK as a whole has reduced, and that's to be celebrated. But, the picture is very different for mobile coverage, where Wales continues to score significantly worse compared to the UK average. I listened with eyes wide open to the Deputy Minister's first remarks, when he was saying how dependent his mobile device was in giving him connectivity. There are parts of my constituency where mobile signal and data connectivity through mobile devices is getting worse as the years go on. To me, that's simply not acceptable. There hasn't been investment by Welsh Government in mobile infrastructure. Any roll-out is being left to commercial mobile network operators. The fact is that if we want significant investment, it cannot be left to the market alone, to commercial companies, to build our infrastructure. Significant investment is needed in Wales's digital infrastructure, and here I believe that we see another example of Westminster not working for Wales.

The kind of digital connectivity that we need to build in the coming years will have a huge influence on the kind of economy that we can develop. I'll use the example of Ottawa in Canada, which I have referred to in the past here in the Assembly, where a concerted effort and serious investment in creating a digitally connected region around the Canadian capital resulted in Ford, for example, investing over £300 million in a centre for the development of autonomous vehicles. The investment was made by Ford, but driven by the kind of infrastructure that had been put in place by Government.

We are missing out on key opportunities here because of the inequalities built into the UK as it is. It is often referred to as one of the most unequal states anywhere in the world. That inequality can be seen through digital connectivity too, and now is the time for us to tackle this issue and make sure that, five years from now, we're much clearer about the direction that we are going in, in terms of digital investment. If Westminster doesn't want to do anything, well we have to seek other ways to move forward.

Referring to my amendment in particular, which calls for better information to be provided through a one-stop shop to those who are not connected to the Superfast Cymru programme about how they can access a fast internet connection. There are plenty of ways that people can access fast broadband: through mobile devices, a dongle in the home can provide digital access for the whole home. We've heard of access through the television signal, which you mentioned, in Monmouthshire, and I think there have been similar thoughts given to systems in Anglesey. Satellite has been a long-standing way of getting internet connection. But how many times do I come across constituents, both as private individuals and businesses, who don't know where to turn to ask for information about how to get themselves connected? There's always a way somehow to get yourself connected, but it's hard to believe that all these years on from the beginning of Superfast Cymru, there still isn't that place where people can go to. And, in fact, we've taken a step back from those days when you could go on Superfast Cymru and put your postcode in and be told exactly where you were in line. Well, there were problems with that, too, but there was an idea through a central hub of where you stood in terms of roll-out. We've taken a step back on that, and I do call on Welsh Government to provide that communication stream for people, so that if they have difficulty still in accessing fast broadband, they can have the advice that they need to look elsewhere. 

The Llywydd took the Chair.

I thank the Government for bringing this motion and for the various amendments that have been made to it. It's the intention of my group to support both the motion and all the amendments to it. However, coming to this as a non-specialist in the area, I do find it a little difficult to engage with the debate and make any assessment of the relative merits of the motion versus the amendments that are made to it. It speaks of what would appear to be good work by Welsh Government in this area and, from the Conservative amendments, to what appear to be good work, at least, in some cases promises of future work, from the UK Government.

There is some use of what, to a non-specialist, I might describe as jargon. I don't wish to be pejorative about that, but I don't understand what 'outside-in' means in this context. Although we will support the motion and the amendments, I would welcome some exposition of what is required there. Similarly with 'stranded assets', we did have from Russell the example of fibre cables hanging from poles near homes, so I infer from that there's been investment that then isn't properly exploited and is left there just hanging and stranded. Does that perhaps relate to the failure to link up Superfast Cymru phase 1 and phase 2?

I wonder from the Government, they say they've connected another 733,000 premises that wouldn't have been connected were it not for Welsh Government's intervention, and I know no reason to doubt what the Government states on it, but I just wonder what the cost of that has been. There was some reference to EU funds, but also from the Government's own funds, and actually transferring money that would have been spent on schools and hospitals into this area. How much money has that been? Do we consider that it has provided value for money and has been worthwhile in all the circumstances?

Clearly, some particularly rural areas are going to be harder and more expensive to link up than others. But we don't have any numbers or financial sense in this motion or the amendments about what those are, and before judging the extent to which Government, whether UK or Welsh Government, should properly intervene and invest money in this area, it would be useful to know something about what the costs of those are, and how it's proposed that they are going to be borne.

With reference to amendment 2, I particularly support the recent £1 billion announcement by UK Government about using and having a shared rural network. I've long argued that the approach in this area should be, particularly in the rural areas that can't otherwise be economically provided for, given the level of public investment, that there should be a shared utility approach. So if we are taking that forward, that strikes me as a positive thing, although I note currently it's only for the 4G technology, and wonder how in due course that might be rolled out to 5G. We also support the Plaid Cymru amendment about a one-stop shop to assist people with the many, many different technical measures and different funding streams available to help them access that. That strikes me as very sensible.

My final plea, and I think it's probably unrealistic over the next month or so, but would be for UK Government and Welsh Government to work together in this area to a greater degree than appears to have been the case before, and, clearly, there will be difficult conversations about who's funding what. But given the particular challenges and level of rurality we face in Wales, but this being a non-devolved issue, but Welsh Government having been willing to invest money in it, surely UK Government and Welsh Government should sit down, work together, think best how to incentivise providers, how to pay for this, and make sure that the different levels of investment are working in tandem and supporting each other rather than at cross purposes. So, I hope, at least after 12 December, some thought may be given to that by both Welsh and UK Government.

I now call the Deputy Minister to reply to the debate. Lee Waters.

Thank you very much to all Members who contributed, and I must sympathise with Mark Reckless—there is an awful lot of jargon and complexity in this area, which I've been working my way through over the last year myself. To answer some of his factual questions, we have invested £200 million of our funds and EU funds in Superfast Cymru, and the successor project is costing £26 million, and that does produce significant economic spin-off.

He asked what 'outside-in' meant and he asked what 'stranded assets' were. Well, 'outside-in' is the principle of making your Government intervention on the most difficult to reach and then moving inwards to urban areas, where inevitably, because of the population density, there is a commercial incentive for companies to put their own money into, whereas rural areas—because of the issues I discussed in my opening speech, both the complexity and the slower return on investment—are less attractive to commercial companies. So, the principle that we support, and the UK Government until now has supported, is that the investment to be put in should be on the outside first, and then moving in to fill in the gaps on to the inside, rather than simply gold-plating coverage that urban areas already have.

'Stranded assets' are the unintended consequences of our Superfast Cymru broadband scheme. We set testing targets for BT, which they struggled to meet for some time, and in the end, in the rush to reach the goals we set—because, as I said, Julie James did negotiate a stiff contract with them—they oversupplied. So, as a result of that, they hit their numerical target, but then they had all sorts of cables sprouting out of trees, as said in many colourful public meetings I've attended and as Members here have recounted, which are very frustrating for residents when they can see wires in hedges and poles near their houses, but they can't connect to them, because from BT's point of view, they've met their targets, they've had their funding, and there's no real commercial case for them to connect them because the grant scheme had finished.

The fund that I've announced the intention to set up today will be available to those communities to look at connecting those stranded assets as well as to rural communities who can't attract the commercial investment, to see if there are more innovative ways we can get them connected in the short to medium term, while we wait for the UK Government to come behind us to try and get full fibre connectivity. And some communities may not ever get full fibre connectivity. And I've been in public meetings where people will tell you that they don't have mains gas and mains sewerage, but they expect fibre-to-the-premises broadband, which is not realistic. The cost of doing this per household is in the tens of thousands of pounds.

Bringing me back to Russell George's opening speech, and I do struggle with this a little bit, because the Welsh Government, for good reason, has stepped in and has intervened and has achieved. And the Conservative response is rather churlish, accusing us of all sorts of failures, for stepping in on their own Government's responsibilities. This is a non-devolved area. You should be doing this. We're doing our best. I'll give way to Mark Isherwood first.

Do you recognise this whole process was kicked off when the UK Government gave the Welsh Government £57 million in 2011 to match fund, for the Welsh Government to deliver the Superfast Cymru programme—11 per cent of all the funding—followed by £56 million more in 2017 to fill in the hardest to reach areas, for the Welsh Government to deliver? It was the UK Government who kick-started this; it was your job to deliver. 

Thank you very much. That's interesting, isn't it? So, the UK Government did match fund, that's quite correct, as did Europe, as did we. We put the package together, UK Government came in off the back. Our job to deliver: it's a non-devolved area. Had we not put this package together, there would be nothing for the UK Government to match fund. It is their responsibility, in a key area of telecommunications, to act in this space and they have failed to do so. I'll give way to Russell George.

Thank you for giving way. If this isn't a devolved area, why put in your Welsh Assembly manifesto—a commitment that all premises across Wales will have superfast broadband by 2015? Also, I challenge you on your level of involvement in this, absolutely. I mean, come to my constituency and come to a public meeting—these are not my words, these are the words of the people that have been left behind, and these are the commitments that you made in your manifesto. Surely, it's only right for me as an Assembly Member to scrutinise Welsh Government spending in this debate today?

So, you're quite right, they have been left behind. They've been left behind by your Government, because it is a non-devolved area. If you want to invite people to public meetings, by all means invite Boris Johnson to your consistency and he can explain to them why he's not providing for your areas. We've stepped in, we've set targets, we've hit 95 per cent of premises in Wales. There are some, for good engineering and cost reasons, it hasn't been possible to reach, and today's fund that we are setting out the intention to launch will do what we can to step in to reach those while the UK Government gets its act together.

But it's bare-faced cheek, frankly, to accuse us for stepping in where they've failed to do so. They're trying to make political capital off the back of our efforts to compensate for the inadequacies of their own Government. So, I suggest they have some stiff conversations on their own side before they start pointing the finger at us.

On a technical point, Russell has made several points, and we've explained this to him before, that there wasn't a seamless transition between the first phase of superfast and the second phase of superfast, because there can't be a seamless transition, because, first of all, we have to launch an open market review to satisfy state aid in competition law, to establish where we could intervene. And having done that, we then had to procure the service. So, that was why—[Interruption.] I'm afraid I don't have enough time to give way any further. I've been quite generous.

So, we did that, and today we are launching a further open market review to see which premises in Wales don't have connectivity for up to 30 Mb per second. Russell George is continuing to chunter away—I do get a little frustrated; it reminds me a little bit of, were we to pave the roads of Wales with gold, Russell George would complain about the gradient. This is just churlish. We are doing our bit and it's his Government who should be doing the rest.

So, I think, Llywydd, I will draw my remarks to a conclusion on that, other than to say we will be accepting amendments 3 and 4. I'll just say finally, on amendment 2, again the Conservatives talk about a universal service obligation, and all of us hear that and it sounds quite reasonable. Think of the Post Office, the Royal Mail has to deliver the letter down the farm track because it's a universal service obligation—and that's exactly what should be happening in this space, as Julie James has been arguing for many years. That is not what's happening. They are using the language of universal service obligation and not delivering it, because the UK Government's version of the universal service obligation is customers will have the right to request a connection, not a right to get one. They'll have the right of speeds of up to 10 Mbps—which, had we done that, Russell George would be the first to complain of how slow that is. And any cost over £3,400—[Interruption.] No, I'm not giving way. Any cost above £3,400 has to be borne by the household, which in rural Wales, apart from the privileged few, this becomes a complete non-starter. So, this is not a universal service obligation, it's smoke and mirrors trying to disguise the fact of their failure to deliver in this space, and it's about time that they pulled their finger out. In the meantime, we'll do what we can.

The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I will therefore defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.