Conservative’s claims over local broadband attacked by SNP

The Scottish Government has hit back at Angus MP Kirstene Hair after she criticised the lack of progress in delivering superfast broadband in Angus.

Ms Hair highlighted figures which showed almost 9,000 properties in the county still did not have access, and accused the Scottish Government of sitting on more than

£20 million in funding for broadband from Westminster.

Rural Economy and Connectivity Secretary Fergus Ewing MSP insisted, however, that the SNP government at Holyrood was committed to extending superfast broadband to 100% of premises in Scotland while the Tories had given no such pledge for the rest of the UK.

He said independent figures showed that since the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband programme began in April 2014, coverage in Perth and Kinross had risen from 39.7% to 84.3%, while in Angus, the increase had been from 62.2% to 85.6%.

“That is the reality of what we are delivering, in contrast to Scottish Tories who carp from the sidelines instead of pressing their own government at Westminster to give Scotland a fair share of funding for broadband,” said Mr Ewing.

“The Tory claims on the £21m funding are entirely false, as it could not have been used effectively before now because of the UK Government’s delay in reaching agreement with the EU.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “More than 15,000 homes and businesses across Angus are now able to connect to high-speed fibre broadband and 95% of homes and businesses can now access the superfast broadband service.”