The UK has a connectivity problem.
The government’s National Infrastructure Commission recently stated that vast areas of the UK are so-called “not-spots”, where 4G data transfer is impossible. The UK occupies 54th place in the global 4G rankings. We’ve all been to places where it is impossible to get a mobile phone signal, never mind browse the internet.
The government wants to extend superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017 and introduce a universal service obligation for broadband at a minimum speed of 10Mbps by 2020. The UK’s record on broadband coverage is good compared with other EU countries, but the baffling roll-out strategy has meant that broadband performance across parliamentary constituencies varies greatly.
The government’s recent focus on infrastructure and, in particular, digital infrastructure, is therefore welcome, particularly for the housebuilding sector.
In his Autumn Statement, the chancellor confirmed a £1bn investment in “full-fibre” and 5G broadband, pledging £400m to boost broadband speeds and £740m to develop ultra-fast 5G mobile networks, which will be provided to some local authorities.
This is good news for housebuilders, which want to develop comfortable and practical homes at volume, but also for communities that support people’s lifestyles and ambitions.
Our own survey of 2,000 people on the most important features that go toward creating a sustainable community found that access to high-speed broadband was number two in their list, second only to proximity to a doctor’s surgery and well above features such as accessibility to local shops and green open spaces.
In addition, the pressures placed on the existing system are changing as householders’ leisure and business activities change. Web browsing is no longer the norm – activities such as video calling, catch-up TV and streaming films now dominate our lives.
We do everything we can to create places people want to live in and that goes right back to selecting our sites. This often means investing in an area through building a school or community centre. But we cannot build a digital infrastructure by ourselves.
If a site has poor communications facilities, it is possible to forge a partnership with a provider to give that development the access it needs, which also can benefit the wider area.
For example, in September 2016 we partnered with Virgin Media to provide ultrafast broadband at the Lime Tree Meadows development in Shrewsbury. The new digital infrastructure will connect 13,000 homes across Shropshire, which is currently without ultrafast broadband. And the Home Builders Federation has partnered with Virgin Media to help enable its members to deliver the best digital infrastructure in homes across the UK.
Partnering at an early stage means that broadband providers know the nature and scale of the development and can ensure they are providing the service that people want and need.
Of course, it is right that the private sector supports the full-scale roll out of a world-class communications network, but the housebuilding industry’s efforts cannot provide the whole solution to the UK’s connectivity problem.
We need to take a step back and look at the fragmented telecommunications landscape that has formed in this country and the solutions the government must offer to bring unity to the benefit of UK households and businesses. Building a network is risky and expensive, but will bring vast benefits, and the driver therefore must come from government.
It is unfortunate that UK communications providers do not work together to share infrastructure and as a result there is no single force orchestrating a rollout of cutting-edge technology. Instead, we get a piecemeal approach.
The government could facilitate the building of a UK-wide broadband network by encouraging a single operator to do this or incentivising network sharing and co-investment from multiple operators, as well as investing itself.
This option fits with the current UK landscape and the money earmarked for digital infrastructure in the Autumn Statement ought to be used in this way. When the detail of this policy becomes clearer we hope to see government progress this option.
Access to high-speed broadband ranks highly on the home buyers’ wish-lists. The UK’s track record in this regard is not strong and the solution needs to come from housebuilders, government and a more closely united telecoms industry.
John Tutte is chief executive of Redrow Group
