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Lord Carter: Government was wrong to axe broadband tax

By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Sep 2010 at 14:18

The former Communications Minister, Lord Carter, has criticised the coalition Government for scrapping the broadband tax and delaying universal broadband targets.

Carter, who was the architect of the Digital Britain report during his brief tenure in the last Labour Government, suggested the Government was sitting on the fence with its broadband policy.

I suspect some members of the current Government wished they hadn't opposed some of the things we proposed in government

"All governments get a chance, when new, to decide where their priorities are," said Carter, speaking at a Westminster eForum. "It's not looking like this is a sector [telecoms]... that will be incentivised or invested in."

"The chance to make change comes along very rarely," Carter added, quoting a mentor of his who claimed that "nothing ever gets changed by people being reasonable".

"The real challenge," Carter continued, "is to be reasonably unreasonable."

When asked whether the Government was right to shift the promise of universal 2Mbits/sec broadband back from 2012 to 2015, and to scrap the 50p per month broadband levy to pay for next generation access - two proposals made by Carter in the Digital Britain report - the former minister demurred.

"I do not agree with shifting [the universal broadband target] from 2012 to 2015," he answered, adding that the opposition parties criticised the tardy timescale and modest speed when the 2012 target was first announced. "I suspect some members of the current Government wished they hadn't opposed some of the things we proposed in government," he added.

He also defended the much-criticised 50p broadband tax, which was axed in the coalition Government's Emergency Budget. "The proposed landline levy wasn't perfect, but it was a targeted solution for a very specific need," he said, referring to the delivery of high-speed broadband to the so-called 'final third' of the country.

"That need isn't going to go away. The answer is going to need to be found at some time by somebody."

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User comments

Why should anyone listen to this poobah? I have said before that the Digital Britain Report was a mismatched grab-bag of gimmicks that did not address any serious issues facing Britain's national security or e-commerce landscape. This guy has no credibility and is just not serious.

By c6ten on 2 Sep 2010

More than 50p in practice!

The amount of 50p was the amount to be charged by the service providers before VAT was applied to the total hence making the cost 60p after Jan 2011

By BornOnTheCusp on 2 Sep 2010

Why should those of us that live in towns subsidise those that choose to live in the country. If you want to live in the country then you can't expect the same services as people in town.

By steven_h1 on 2 Sep 2010

No man is an island

Better grow your own food in the city then! We're all interdependent, rural people and businesses need broadband as much as anyone else.

By rgwr1 on 2 Sep 2010

Trying to get high speed fixed line broadband to every property is extremely inefficient. There is a far wider benefit in improving mobile broadband coverage and capacity so that visitors to rural areas can also benefit, as well as residents.

By halsteadk on 2 Sep 2010