Shropshire MP Owen Paterson fumes as target for rural broadband ends

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson said all walks of life depend on good broadband connections, and said that targets agreed by the Government were being dropped.

He said he would be writing to Business Secretary Sajid Javid after a Government consultation document suggested superfast broadband would not be automatically delivered to tens of thousands of remote rural homes across Britain.

The news comes as a blow to the Shropshire Star's Get Us Connected campaign, which is calling for better mobile signal and broadband connections across large swathes of the county which have poor service.

Ministers have repeatedly extolled the economic benefits of extending access to superfast broadband across the country.

But a consultation document on the Government's promised Universal Service Obligation – which guarantees broadband speeds 10 Mbps – says the full roll-out of superfast broadband would not make sense.

"It is unlikely that everyone will want to be connected, even if that option is made available to them, and so we do not believe that an additional broadband roll-out programme at this time is proportionate or would represent value for money," it says.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) rejected suggestions that rural areas were being left behind, insisting that under current plans superfast broadband – defined as 25 megabits per second (Mbps) – would reach 95 per cent of the UK.

But rural campaigners expressed concern that businesses will move away and jobs will be lost unless they are included in the roll-out.

Mr Paterson, who has campaigned for several months on behalf of constituents with poor mobile and broadband connections, said he was "absolutely furious" at the latest announcement.

He said: "It's completely unacceptable that targets for superfast broadband should be dropped for rural areas. It's the one new technological innovation that should eliminate the disadvantage of living in rural areas. I have constituents running businesses and who have children in education depending on their connection to the internet.

It is so important for people of all ages in the modern age. There is not one walk of life that does not rely on broadband.

"I'm going to write to Sajid Javid to ask what the implications are for Shropshire."

A DCMS spokesman said: "It's absolute nonsense to suggest we're leaving rural areas behind in our roll-out of broadband.

"Our current plans will reach at least 95 per cent of the UK, but we want everyone to have fast broadband so we are introducing a Universal Service Obligation to help make sure no-one is left behind."