Election 2019: Labour pledges free broadband for all by 2030
Labour has promised to give every home and business in the UK free full-fibre broadband by 2030, if it wins the general election.
The party would nationalise part of BT to deliver the policy and introduce a tax on tech giants to help pay for it.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the BBC the “visionary” £20bn plan would “ensure that broadband reaches the whole of the country”.
According to the BBC News website – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50427369 – Mr McDonnell said that if other broadband providers did not want to give access to British Broadband, then they would also be taken into public ownership.
The Tories said it was a “fantasy plan” that would cost taxpayers billions. This coming from a party that wants to continue with HS2, with a current estimation of the bill of £89bn.
BT chief executive Philip Jansen told BBC News he was happy to work with whoever wins the election to help build a digital Britain.
According to a report from regulator Ofcom earlier this year, only 7% of the UK has access to full-fibre broadband. This leaves the UK lagging well behind competitors in the telecoms sector.
Mr McDonnell told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Labour would add an extra £15bn to the government’s existing £5bn broadband strategy, with the money to come from the party’s proposed Green Transformation Fund.
I believe this is a truly groundbreaking policy that will utterly transform the digital sector in the United Kingdom, making the current government’s policies look like the piecemeal offerings that they are.