The UK Labour governments chancellor, Alistair Darling, has used his pre-budget report today to green light the controversial £0.50p (+vat) per month tax - Next Generation Fund - on all fixed phone lines to help develop future superfast broadband networks. Darling hopes the levy, which should raise around £175m per year, will help next gen broadband services reach 90% of the UK by the end of 2017.


Concerns have been raised about the government’s intention to keep the tax going, even if its 2017 target is met (i.e. like road tax, which doesn't all get spent on roads). There are also fears about the difficulty in gaining fair distribution of the money, the way they want to add VAT on top of the tax, how the government might define a fixed phone line in the first place and the fact that the tax might not even be enough.