Posted: 02nd Dec, 2009 By: MarkJ

The
Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has called on the UK government to consider using some of the money it saves from enforcing greater use of online eGoverment services (i.e. online tax returns) to aid in "
providing fast, affordable broadband to every door – including rural areas."
The comments follow a new communication from the HMRC, which is seeking to require businesses with a turnover of more than £100,000 a year to compete their tax returns online. This has been described by "
rural economy experts" as absurd; it’s bad luck if you can't get an Internet connection in the first place.
Douglas Chalmers, Director CLA North said:
“We know - and Government and its agencies also know - that effective and affordable broadband is simply not available in many areas, including huge swathes of the countryside. But this stark fact appears to have been overlooked once more, putting more financial pressure on companies at a time when they should be investing in other parts of their business – which is what their broadband-enabled competitors will be able to do. Yet again, rural businesses responsible for the economic underpinning of rural communities are being disadvantaged.
Of course it is more efficient and cost-effective for Government to have people process documents such as tax returns online, but it has yet to make available the means by which everyone can do so. I am therefore asking how much money Government has saved by embracing online administration over the last few years, and suggest that a portion of this saving is invested in providing fast, affordable broadband to every door – including rural areas where people are simply unable to comply with regulation on an equal footing.
Until the needed investment that the CLA has been calling for happens, it is unacceptable to roll out mandatory online form-filling. Common sense says that something can only be mandatory if people have the ability to comply."
Initially we thought the CLA might be going a bit bonkers because other areas need money just as much, yet in the above context their point becomes perfectly valid. If you're going to make an online process mandatory then surely you should make sure that everybody can at least get a decent Internet connection in the first place.