{"id":82143,"date":"2017-07-03T10:07:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T10:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=7d3a7830640fef1bcc38d1424710502d"},"modified":"2017-07-03T10:07:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T10:07:26","slug":"speech-digital-infrastructure-investment-fund-launch-exchequer-secretary-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=82143","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund launch: Exchequer Secretary speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thank you for welcoming me to Peterborough this morning \u2013 and in particular, my thanks to the Future Business Centre for hosting us.<\/p>\n

There couldn\u2019t be a better place to come and talk about how we get Britain ready for the next generation.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a city that\u2019s pioneering the way forward in the UK.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also leading the way internationally too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an amazing achievement that Peterborough beat the likes of Dubai and Moscow to take the Smart City Award just two years ago.<\/p>\n

And everyone who has played a part in that should feel really proud of all you\u2019ve accomplished to make this city such a technological, digital and ecological leader.<\/p>\n

We want the rest of Britain following your lead, so it\u2019s not just individual cities like Peterborough that are smart, it\u2019s our nation as a whole.<\/p>\n

Because our connectivity matters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always been one of the most important ways to get your economy growing and your productivity improving.<\/p>\n

Just think about what we\u2019ve seen throughout Peterborough\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

From the old Roman roads that took goods like ceramics, corn and iron ore across ancient Britain.<\/p>\n

To the developments of the Nene in the 18th century, which made Peterborough a hub for traffic from both the Northern Fens and Northampton.<\/p>\n

Or the arrival of the Great Northern Railway between Peterborough and York in 1850, bringing new people, trade and wealth to the city.<\/p>\n

If you make the movement of goods and people possible, if you make it easier, if you make it faster, you become more productive, and more prosperous as a result.<\/p>\n

A Digital Age<\/h3>\n

You can still see that principle informing the policies of the government today.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019ve been investing historic amounts in Britain\u2019s road and railway network\u2013 something I won\u2019t get started on, because as a former Transport minister, I could talk at some length on the topic.<\/p>\n

But in today\u2019s world, it\u2019s also about more than just the physical connections, that get people and products from A to B.<\/p>\n

When Tim Berners-Lee made the first post on his hypertext site back in the summer of 1991, he kickstarted the world wide web and gave birth to a new, digital age.<\/p>\n

And what changes we\u2019ve seen since then!<\/p>\n

I can still remember, for example, when I was at school in Bradford, and we had a special class trip to the University to see a computer!<\/p>\n

I went on to be one of the first thousand or so pupils to do an O Level in Computer Science \u2013 but it was a bit odd by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

Back then, we were still punching programs into pieces of card!<\/p>\n

Nowadays, kids are learning to code at school, and playing on iPads and smart phones at home.<\/p>\n

Society has changed, and almost beyond recognition, with the rapid advances of new technology.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s our job to make sure Britain\u2019s digital infrastructure keeps pace.<\/p>\n

Up to now, we\u2019ve been working on getting as many of our communities as possible connected to superfast broadband.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019ve come a really long way \u2013 with over 90% of homes now able to do that \u2013 a far higher proportion, incidentally, than most advanced economies are able to boast.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re not done.<\/p>\n

We expect to get that percentage up to at least 95% of homes by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

And we are working on providing a decent level of connectivity to that final 5%, including through our universal broadband commitment.<\/p>\n

I take a particular interest in this as the Member of Parliament for Harrogate and Knaresborough, with a few country villages in my constituency which still aren\u2019t connected.<\/p>\n

So I fully understand how much it matters to people.<\/p>\n

In fact, my local estate agents tell me it\u2019s one of the first questions people ask when they come to view a property.<\/p>\n

\n

Yes it\u2019s lovely, but has it got broadband?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well we\u2019re going to be continuing our work to make sure that in the future, the answer to that question will be a straightforward yes.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a new priority we\u2019re turning to now.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s getting our internet connections up to the kind of speed and reliability that people are increasingly looking for \u2013 and will be essential as our data needs soar in the future.<\/p>\n

The problem is that at the moment most people\u2019s broadband runs off old telephone lines and cables that were laid decades ago.<\/p>\n

We may even think we\u2019ve got fibre broadband.<\/p>\n

But actually, we\u2019re often still relying on old copper wires for the final bit of the connection to our homes, and some of these \u2013 I\u2019m not joking \u2013 date back over a hundred years.<\/p>\n

Just the average age is about 33 years!<\/p>\n

Well our needs, and our technologies, have moved on in that time.<\/p>\n

And what we want now is full fibre.<\/p>\n

Glass tubes to bring homes and businesses internet at lightning speed, and consistent reliability \u2013 even through storms and floods!<\/p>\n

Full fibre really represents a giant step forward.<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019m sure the vast majority of us \u2013 if not all of us \u2013 have got broadband at home.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019ll all have noticed that at certain times of high demand, our internet speeds drop to a crawl.<\/p>\n

That film you were watching keeps buffering.<\/p>\n

That document you need to send to work just won\u2019t upload.<\/p>\n

Or your housemate\u2019s game is making every other device in the house operate at a frustratingly slow pace.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s not some mystical phenomenon, when the Gods of the Internet just aren\u2019t on your side.<\/p>\n

It all goes back to those ageing lines that are connecting you, which just can\u2019t cope with the level of demand they\u2019re being put under.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what this government is acting to change \u2013 and the change starts today!<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019ve come here to launch a new national investment fund to get full fibre coming to people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n

Up to now, we\u2019ve only had pockets of places across the country starting to get full fibre \u2013 and Peterborough is of course one of those places which is really at the head of the pack.<\/p>\n

But in general this is a market which is still in the early stages of its development.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got a number of new and smaller scale companies which want to change that.<\/p>\n

They want to install full fibre networks, to offer the next generation of fast, reliable internet to more and more homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

But the problem is that it\u2019s now often difficult, or expensive, for them to get the investment they need to do so.<\/p>\n

Which is why government is stepping in to help get that ball rolling.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re doing it in a really innovative way.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re putting up \u00a3400 million pounds<\/a>, and we\u2019re getting fund managers to invest that wisely on our behalf.<\/p>\n

Those fund managers, I\u2019m delighted to say, are here today, and I can announce that it\u2019s two companies, M & G Investments and Amber Infrastructure, which have both got a really strong track record of investment.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll not only be investing our money in companies installing fibre across the UK, with a view to getting us a good return.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll be using our investment to bring other private investors on board, who will match our investment on the same terms.<\/p>\n

They expect to unlock more than a billion pounds of investment in that way.<\/p>\n

And the great news is that they\u2019ve already managed to get a significant amount of private investment agreed, so that the fund can start straightaway.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re ready to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n

And in just two days time, on Wednesday, we\u2019ve got all the players in this market coming to the Treasury to meet the new fund managers and hear first-hand how the fund could help them roll out their plans.<\/p>\n

Soon, then, we\u2019ll have investment flowing, and companies getting the capital they need to expand their full fibre networks.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the start this industry needs.<\/p>\n

It will help these companies prove that the demand is there, that the profit is there, and that investors who back them can earn a good return.<\/p>\n

So by taking the step we\u2019ve taken today, we can unlock for the future a steady flow of private investment into the market, and bring the best quality internet to homes, organisations and businesses across the country.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s a real pleasure to be here with you in Peterborough today, to celebrate the beginning of this new chapter in Britain\u2019s digital development.<\/p>\n

Because it all comes back to the point I started out with.<\/p>\n

If we become better connected \u2013 whether physically or intellectually, through our transport links or our digital connections \u2013 the benefits to our society and our economy will be transformational.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen that here in Peterborough as a result of your ongoing journey to be an innovative, smart city.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s see the rest of the UK catching up, as we get our internet up to spec, our economy up to speed, and prepare the way for a new wave of British enterprise, growth and prosperity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Jones, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, launches the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund in Peterborough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}