Home » 

UK ISP News Archives

 » 
Sponsored Links

Conservative Party Pledges to Review UK Fibre Optic Broadband Tax

Posted: 07th Nov, 2009 By: MarkJ
The Conservative Party has pledged to review the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) controversial fibre optic broadband tax (Fibre Tax), which essentially taxes the rateable value of the basic infrastructure. Many see the tax as a significant obstacle to rolling out superfast fibre optic broadband networks.

Speaking at the 2nd International Dark Fibre Convention Ed Vaizey MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Culture and the Creative Industries, criticised the current Labour governments apparent support for the tax. Vaizey warned that the tax could hinder next generation broadband rollout and cause "huge damage" to UK telecoms.

ComputerWeekly quotes from Ed Vaizey' speech:

"No-one's prepared to take responsibility for the whole picture. We see policy shared between a bewildering array of government bodies and quangos. This is something I intend to fix. No matter that the VOA claims that this is just an extension of the existing policy - it's still damaging."

Politics though can be a murky thing, especially this close to a general election, and Vaizey does not actually say what a Conservative government would do differently. We do at least know that they'd attempt to scrap Labour's proposed 50p per month tax on all fixed phone lines. Indeed we believe that it is far better to relax the tax on fibre, perhaps only for a few years, than impose a new one on the whole country.

The Digital Britain report (here) set a target of 2017 for 90% of UK homes and businesses to be within reach of next generation broadband lines and the 50p tax is seen as critical for achieving this. But there are fears that, after its usefulness has expired, the levy (generating up to £175m per year) could quickly turn into being just another tax (i.e. like road tax, which doesn't get spent on roads).

Concerns have also been raised about the added cost for low income families, the difficulty in gaining fair distribution of the money itself, how the government might define a fixed phone line in the first place and the fact that the tax might not be enough to do the job. So we take most of the revenue from this 50p tax and use it to feed the VOA's Fibre Tax? What a wonderful plan.

Elsewhere Vaizey also had a few choice words for BT, which he called upon to be "opened up for others to run fibre." This is something BT has already promised to do (wholesale access), albeit with some rather big concessions from Ofcom that would allow them to retain more control (i.e. no unbundled fibre just yet).

The suggestion appears to be that a Conservative government would seek to pressure BT into removing some of the controls it has agreed with Ofcom. Failing to do this could result in a future government holding back investment in BT's network. BT probably shouldn't be too worried because with no 50p tax and no Fibre Tax they wouldn't have enough cash for investment anyway.
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5472)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules