Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps can be taken to provide broadband services to residential properties in major cities where (a) commercial internet providers have deemed the street cabinets serving that commercially unviable and (b) the local authority is restricted in its ability to use public funds to build broadband networks in contravention of state aid regulations.

The Government is investing up to £150m in the SuperConnected Cities Programme to support UK cities to develop the digital infrastructure capability required to remain internationally competitive.

In addition there has also been a substantial increase in planned commercial infrastructure investment in urban areas including, BT committing an additional £50million to their commercial roll-out; Virgin Media investing to improve its superfast footprint by 100,000 premises and a range of other providers making investments in cities such as York, Coventry and Peterborough. These investments will benefit both businesses and domestic households. There is also the ongoing roll-out of 4G which will make a significant impact on connectivity in urban locations.

The Government is also working to drive down costs of network delivery and has amended the planning regulations and Electronic Communications code supported the European Directive on measures to reduce broadband deployment costs and has a universal basic broadband commitment to ensure minimum service levels.

When Government reviews outstanding coverage issues in urban locations after the closure of the SME voucher initiative in March 2015 we will be better placed to identify the most challenging areas and to consider the most appropriate and effective method of intervention at that time.