Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to his contribution of 5 November 2012, where in clause 7 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill it states that the provisions of the clause exclusively relate to broadband infrastructure.
[127477]
Answer
As Ministers stated during the 2nd Reading debate on 5 November 2012, Official Report, columns 599 and 691, the provisions in the Bill relate to facilitating the provision of broadband infrastructure through street cabinets and telegraph poles.
The provisions in clause 7 of the Bill amend the electronic communications code under the Communications Act 2003. Those sections on the electronic communications code are phrased in a technology-neutral way, as technological neutrality is a fundamental principle of the European regulatory framework for communications, to ensure effective and fair competition in the Single Market. However, the practical and intended effect of the clause 7 changes will be to make it easier to provide fixed broadband in rural areas.
As the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles), explained in his speech, in the 1980s, telecommunications deregulation opened up the market to satellite television. We want to do the same for 21st century broadband infrastructure, and tackle the ‘digital divide’ that is socially and economically harmful to rural Britain.
For the avoidance of doubt, clause 7 of the Growth Bill makes no change to the planning regime for mobile phone masts, which governs their location and siting. Planning is a separate consent regime from the electronic communications code, and planning is governed by the Town and Country Planning Act 1992, by associated secondary legislation through the General Permitted Development Order 2005 and by planning policy guidance in the National Planning Policy Framework.