Government denies its actions are detrimental to software industry

Houghton and Sunderland Labour MP Bridget Pillipson complained the government had scrapped the guarantee of universal access

The coalition government has denied opposition claims that it is in danger of jeopardising the UK's place as the fifth-largest ICT market in the world.

Houghton and Sunderland Labour MP Bridget Pillipson delivered the warning in a Commons debate on the software industry after claiming the last Labour government developed the framework that enabled the UK to reach this status.

She complained the government had scrapped the guarantee of universal access to broadband by 2012 and announced a review of intellectual property law with the aim of relaxing the rules in a way that could leave Britain's intellectual property exposed and unprotected.

It has also withdrawn a previously promised tax break for the computer games sector and proposed increases in university tuition fees that would hit students taking mathematics and ICT-related degree courses.

And she cited Sunderland Software City as one of the successes of One North East, one of the regional development agencies being scrapped by the government.

Wrexham Labour MP Ian Lucas said that under his party the software industry had become strong on the national stage, with 1.2 million people working in it.

He said scrapping the universal broadband pledge would create a competitive disadvantage for companies outside the south east and other centres, and created uncertainty about the spread of high-speed broadband services. "These are key to the development of software companies," he said.

He also spoke of evidence of a close relationship between Prime Minister David Cameron and Google, adding: "It is interesting that on the very day the prime minister announced there would be a review of intellectual property rights in the UK, Google announced it would be taking part in the East London high-tech city project." Google is an advocate of more relaxed IP laws, and has said in the past that it would not have been able to set up in the UK because of the stringent laws.

Lucus added: "We need to be conscious of not only freedom of expression and access to information, which are of course vital and needed to make our nation competitive, but of the rights of those who create original material, often the small people in all this, which need to be retained."

Business, innovation and skills minister Ed Vaizey challenged Lucas, who remained silent, "to elaborate on his remark that Google was rewarded for coming on board the East London project" along with Vodaphone and BT.

Southport Liberal Democrat MP Dr John Pugh warned that recent IT education in schools has moved from pupils being taught about programming to how to use applications, he added: "The people who are going to produce the applications of the future will not be British – they will be Indian, Chinese and possibly American. There is a decline in IT education in this country; or, rather, it is not what it could be."

Vaizey said: "We are absolutely committed to creating the right conditions to allow software and other UK technology companies to flourish."

He said innovation of software technologies will underpin many of the fundamental shifts we see in our society and argued that the government was committed to creating the conditions that would allow it to flourish.

Vaizey said superfast broadband was essential and dismissed Labour's plan for a universal broadband service by 2012 at 2Mbits, paid for with the proceeds of a telephone tax that would have hit some of the poorest in society as "a very poor ambition".

He claimed the government will have secured £530m by the end of the next three years and £300m after that to encourage the development of "the best superfast broadband in Europe" by 2015. He also said the government had made " huge progress" on regulatory issues, such as duct access and the opportunity to roll out broadband on telegraph poles.