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Broadband (North of England)

Yes, I strongly agree with that argument. I do not think that the scale or sector of a business, or the geography, really matter. The point about broadband is the ability to get access to customers all over the world. We need it, and quickly. The hon. Lady’s point is absolutely correct. For a rural business, dialling up on a slow landline that other family members might also use is incredibly slow going. Businesses without connectivity are being left behind, which is why good, reliable superfast broadband matters.

I want to share with the House one of the successful lessons of the North Yorkshire roll-out. North Yorkshire will shortly become the best connected county in the country, because our delivery vehicle was already in place as the Government launched their broadband strategy. That vehicle was a company started previously by North Yorkshire county council, called NYnet. NYnet has done extremely well, and deserves congratulations and praise from across the county. Being in a position to start promptly and knowing where some of the challenges would lie made a difference. North Yorkshire was the first county in the country to award its roll-out contract. The roll-out has been going at the rate of about 6,000 to 7,000 properties per month, which is a good rate. I checked the latest data and at the end of last week 102,402 properties had been enabled to receive superfast broadband of at least 25 megabits per second.

Just having the capacity, however, is not enough. People have to choose it. Take-up is running at 16.2 %, and rising sharply. Superfast North Yorkshire expects to reach 20% take-up by summer, and 30% by the middle of next year. That is significant as those rates of take-up also trigger clawback elements in the contract, so the roll-out provider—in this case, British Telecom—will have to pay money back to NYnet. It will be able to use that for reinvestment to roll out broadband to remaining properties, perhaps as match funding for Government schemes. The lesson from the roll-out is that the importance really lies in demand stimulation for both residential and business customers.

In North Yorkshire, significant business support and training have been on offer. There have been local conferences at Ripon racecourse and Fountains abbey, ably organised by my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith); my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) came to speak. We encouraged business and communities to get involved. There has been good business follow-up and more than 900 businesses have been helped.

I saw for myself how Superfast North Yorkshire has been operating when I attended the launch of the service in Boroughbridge in my constituency. I thought that it was good marketing, and I come from a marketing background. It was 6 December last year. We had a roadshow, involving the local school, the local mayor, local businesses, Father Christmas, of course, and some Christmas carols, Christmas punch and Christmas cake. It was a very Christmas-themed event. We also had a giant mouse, which I used for a ceremonial switching on of the service, and, to communicate that the service was available, a fibre-optic Christmas tree lit up to symbolise it. Basically, everything added up to show that something had happened—something new, fun and for everyone. I have been informed by the local community that the take-up in Boroughbridge has been high.