Welsh MP attacks UK government over broadband plans

Shadow Business Minister Ian Lucas has accused the government of neglecting Wales by refusing to allocate funding for super-fast broadband

Ian Lucas, Shadow Business Minister and MP for Wrexham, has attacked the UK coalition government over its lack of specific funding to help Wales get connected to superfast broadband.

The UK government announced its broadband strategy earlier this month, which will see £530m made available up until 2015, with a possible £300m made available for the two years following that.

On Lucas' website, he reveals that Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, admitted in response to a Parliamentary question that no money would be allocated specifically for improving broadband services in Wales.

"The approach being taken to broadband rollout is to support specific projects rather than make allocations to nations or regions," said Vaizey.

Wales is currently not included in the government's pilot projects set up to test out the high-speed broadband network in October, but Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested it will benefit from the pilot project being held in the neighbouring county of Herefordshire.

"The licence fee is paid by taxpayers in Wales in exactly the same way as it is across the UK, yet the government has not guaranteed any money for Wales," said Lucas.

"When ministers effectively say Wales has to wait for the scraps from a project across the border, it does not inspire much confidence," he added.

"It is vital that Wales exerts as much pressure on the government as possible to make sure it gets its fair share."

The attack comes after the Welsh Assembly Government announced its strategy for ‘Digital Wales', which hopes to provide businesses with access to super-fast broadband by 2016, and households by 2020.