Rayleigh & Wickford left lagging behind by the Government’s broken promise on broadband

Boris Johnson's promise to provide 85% of homes and businesses in Rayleigh & Wickford with high-speed broadband by 2025 is set to be broken, local Liberal Democrats can reveal.

Analysis of House of Commons Library data by the party has found that just 29.2% of premises in Rayleigh & Wickford had gigabit broadband availability in 2021.

At the current rate of progress, only 82.3% of homes and businesses in areas will have gigabit access by 2025. This is well short of the Government's promise of providing 85% of premises with high-speed broadband by that date.

It comes as households and business owners in Rayleigh & Wickford brace themselves for the cost of broadband to skyrocket in April. Several broadband providers have announced their prices will go up by 9.3%, in line with CPI inflation of 5.4% in December - the biggest rise in almost thirty years.

With this hike on the way, Rayleigh Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to legally require all broadband providers to automatically offer cheaper deals through 'social tariffs' for struggling families. This move could save as many as 6775 people in Rayleigh & Wickford around £270 a year on their broadband bill.

Cllr James Newport, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Rayleigh North, said:

"These damning figures show the Conservatives are once again breaking their promises and failing to meet their targets to boost broadband speeds in Rayleigh & Wickford.

"This pandemic has shown how vital access to broadband is for learning, for work and for staying connected. But local families and businesses are being left in the digital slow lane and face crippling hikes to their broadband bills, on top of tax raids and soaring energy prices.

"The Liberal Democrats are demanding cheaper broadband deals for struggling families in our community, saving them hundreds of pounds a year. The Government cannot stand idly by while the cost of living crisis hits residents in Rayleigh in the pocket."

Notes to Editors

For a breakdown of constituency data, please see here.

Lib Dem proposals for cheaper broadband deals:

• The Liberal Democrats have called on the Government to force broadband providers to offer cheaper deals to all lower income families struggling to afford their bills, through so-called 'social tariffs'.
  
  
• These tariffs are currently offered by some broadband providers on a voluntary basis, but the government could order the regulator Ofcom to make them mandatory by using a change in the law introduced in 2020. Full House of Commons Library research on making social tariffs mandatory is available here.

• This change could allow households on universal credit and other means-tested benefits to access basic broadband packages for around £15 a month, depending upon how the eligibility criteria is set. Analysis by the party estimates this could save over eight million homes around £272 a year once the steep price rises come into effect.
  
  

Research by uSwitch has found that the average monthly spend among those eligible for social tariffs is £34.50. This would rise to £37.71 a month - £452.52 a year - with a 9.3% price increase in April. A social tariff of £15 per month - £180 a year - could therefore save the average customer £272.52 per year (BT have announced that their 9.3% price rise will not affect customers on their £15 BT Home Essentials social tariff)