One in four homes endures broadband that’s not up to speed

ONE in four households and businesses in Britain receives broadband speeds that are lower than the Government’s basic standard amid growing concerns about the “digital divide”.

An analysis by the House of Commons library found that 24 per cent of people across the UK are denied adequate service, rising to an average of 45 per cent in villages and hamlets.

It says that broadband speeds are half as fast in rural areas as urban areas.

However, it also revealed significant divides in urban areas, with city centres often enduring lower speeds than suburban districts a few miles away.

Ministers have announced a new “universal service obligation” that will give every household in Britain the right to request access to broadband with minimum speeds of 10Mbps.

The report found that the slowest speeds were predominantly in rural areas in Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire and the South West.

Kingston upon Hull, in East Yorkshire, has the worst broadband in England, with half of households enduring speeds of less than the minimum standard, while in north Herefordshire four in 10 households have slow broadband. In Taunton Deane, Somerset, the figure is 38.9 per cent.

In Scotland, the worst affectted re- gions are Ross, Skye and Lochaber, and Orkney and Shetland, where more than half of people receive broadband speeds of less than 10Mbps, while in Wales the worst broadband is in Montgomeryshire and Ceredigion.

The research suggested that in some parts of the country, many people had not switched to faster broadband speeds despite their being available.

Grant Shapps, a former Conservative Party chairman and head of the British Infrastructure Group of MPS, said: “It is disturbing that after years of campaigning, one in four people still don’t have basic internet speed.

“It’s not good enough to simply claim that people aren’t taking up faster speeds where they are available. For many people the prices are out of reach. The Government has a responsibility to do more to get people on to better broadband.”

Only two per cent of households in the UK have access to “ultra-fast” fullfibre broadband with speeds of more than 300 Mbps.

The Government said that just 3 per cent of homes across the country were currently unable to access minimum speeds because they do not have the infrastructure in place.

A spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said: “Around 98 per cent of UK homes and businesses can now get speeds of 10 Mbps or faster, so we’d encourage those with slow connections to check with their provider whether a faster connection is already available.

“But we want to make sure no one is left behind, which is why we are making reliable, affordable, high-speed broadband a legal right for everyone by 2020.”