Keeping up the fight for fibre broadband rollout in constituency ‘not spots’:
I am furious that the government has reneged on its commitment to connect parts of my constituency to gigabit-capable broadband by 2029 at the very latest.
This will be hugely disappointing for local residents in so-called ‘hard-to-reach’ or ‘not spots’ such as Throwley and Wichling, who I campaigned with to have their homes included in the Project Gigabit contract.
The government has announced that the Project Gigabit contract with CityFibre has been cut to under 20% of its original target - from 50,000 homes to just 9,000 across Kent. Getting rural areas like Throwley and Wichling into the contract was hard fought for and I am furious that, after so much time and energy, we are back to square one again.
Whilst I am pleased that the government has at least retained the commitment to achieving nationwide gigabit coverage, the target date for local residents now seems to have been pushed back to 2032 which is extremely frustrating. Are my constituents supposed to wait another 6 years for a decent broadband connection?
I have written to the Minister to call for a meeting and press for a solution to be found for my constituents as a priority (see attachment).
