I welcome competition in the market, but I would say to the hon. Lady that we now have broadband blackspots in parts of central London, and 15% of the constituency of the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Sally-Ann Hart) has these MDU blackspots. This is affecting constituents up and down the land, and the demand from all our constituencies, particularly because of the pandemic, is that we require the very best sector-leading broadband. It cannot simply be the case that some operators say this must happen and some say it should not happen, therefore nothing is resolved.
2.30 pm
The firm view of the official Opposition is that the Government are not taking this seriously enough, and we want the Government to meet their targets. They have broken their promises twice already, and we would like this country to have sector-leading broadband delivery right across the UK. I therefore say to the hon. Lady that it is remarkably straightforward: our constituents deserve better than what the Government are providing. For example, Openreach is unable to access 620,000 MDU properties. This includes 65,000 properties alone since December 2021. The Government can wax lyrical about levelling up our infrastructure, but the reality is that a significant chunk of the population are being left behind and excluded from the Government’s fabled gigabit revolution.
I assure Members that amendments 14 to 17 would not give operators carte blanche to do as they want when they want. The strict conditions mean that automatic upgrade rights can be granted only if the sharing and upgrading of apparatus have no adverse effect on a
person’s enjoyment of the land and there is no loss, damage or expense incurred for the person receiving the upgrade. This point was emphasised in Committee. The amendments will make the process easier for MDUs to have access to upgraded broadband connectivity, which I am sure Members on both sides of the House would like to see.
Amendments 12, 13 and 9, in the name of the right hon. Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne), look to amend the Bill by removing operators’ ability to calculate the rent paid by landowners based on land value rather than market value. Prior to the 2017 reforms, the valuation of sites for digital infrastructure was carried out on a market value basis, and it functioned well. Landowners were paid a fair and competitive price for hosting telecommunications infrastructure. The 2017 ECC reforms changed the way new sites were valued. It stipulated that landowners would be paid on the basis of land value, not market value.
The Law Commission voiced clear concerns at the time, arguing that it would lead to a fall in rent for landowners, and therefore a slowdown in the number of agreements being reached. As we heard in oral evidence, some landowners have seen their rents dwindle by as much as 90% in some cases, and as a consequence livelihoods have been turned upside down. These are welcome amendments, as they would mean that small tenant farmers, sports clubs and community organisations get a fairer deal for the land they are renting out.