‘Broadband should be like S Korea’s’

One of West Yorkshire’s mayoral hopefuls has called for the county to develop a broadband network “far more like South Korea and less like North Korea”.

Leeds city councillor Matt Robinson, the Conservative candidate, was asked at a hustings how he would help make sure the local economy generated net zero carbon emissions.

ONE OF West Yorkshire’s mayoral hopefuls has called for the county to develop a broadband network “far more like South Korea and less like North Korea” as he and his rivals were challenged on how they would help meet ambitious net zero targets.

Leeds city councillor Matt Robinson, the Conservative candidate to be West Yorkshire’s first ever directly elected metro mayor next month, was asked at a hustings how he would help make sure the local economy generated net zero carbon emissions.

And Liberal Democrat Stewart Golton, a fellow Leeds councillor, described a “consensus breaking out” among the candidates about the measures needed as he and fellow candidates Bob Buxton of the Yorkshire Party and Green councillor Andrew Cooper were quizzed on the issue.

Labour candidate Tracy Brabin, the current MP for Batley & Spen, did not attend the economic hustings organised by the Centre for Cities think tank, along with Reform UK candidate Wajid Ali. Mr Buxton attacked Labour’s approach to housing, saying local Labour councils were building on the green belt instead of on previously used industrial sites.

And Mr Cooper, the leader of the Green group on Kirklees Council, accused the Labour-run authority of putting barriers in the way of public sector and social housing projects being built to the so-called Passivhaus Standard, the highest international energy performance standard.

Whoever is elected mayor on May 6 will take on new powers and resources as part of the devolution deal agreed with West Yorkshire leaders a year ago.

Mr Cooper wants to introduce a Green Building Fund to ensure all public sector and social housing projects are built to the highest energy efficiency standards, which he said would help fund the extra costs of retrofitting properties to make them more environmentally friendly. He said pilot projects would help establish the skills needed to achieve that.

Mr Buxton more subsidies were needed for the installation of wind turbines, where appropriate, and solar panels. The lecturer in adult education said: “Unfortunately a lot of these schemes are mishandled by government, downgraded, eventually they get cancelled, that’s a step in the wrong direction.”

Mr Golton, leader of the Leeds city council Liberal Democrats, said the fact that West Yorkshire had a more demanding net zero target of 2038 compared with the Government’s 2050 means there is “going to be some kind of friction there”. And he said: “One of the things that we’re going to have to do is challenge government effectively to make sure we’ve got the resources to do that.”

He added: “Something very practical should be happening with local authorities and as mayor I will be having that challenge conversation with them to identify the land to enable those small niche builders to actually scale up and become far more productive.”

Mr Robinson said climate change needed to be taken seriously and couldn’t just be seen as a “bolt-on”. On transport, he advocated an Uber-style on-demand bus service. He added: “But it’s also about people who work from home, many more people now, much more than previously are considering working from home. We should be looking at getting broadband rolled out across West Yorkshire, starting with the areas that can’t access the best broadband to make sure we deliver it.

“We should have a digital system across West Yorkshire that’s far more like South Korea and less like North Korea.”

It’s also about people who work from home, many more people now. Matt Robinson, the Conservative candidate to be West Yorkshire’s first metro mayor.