Faster broadband in Cumbria crucial to economic recovery, MP tells ministers

This week in Parliament, local MP Tim Farron urged Government ministers to invest in faster broadband in Cumbria to help fire back up the economy.

Speaking during a debate in Westminster Hall on Productivity in Rural Areas, Tim said: "The fact that we have 95% 'officially superfast broadband' in my constituency is hugely welcome.

"That 95%, however, does not ring many bells for the chief executive officer of a trading and development company in our big town of Kendal, which has a 0.05 megabits per second upload speed.

"One in four of my constituents works for themselves, and that they are entrepreneurs and creative. Even more could be if they were given the ability to be better connected.

"I look at our community at the moment, struggling from COVID and doing their best to work from home, in circumstances that were utterly unthinkable just six months ago. I am sure we will not go back to how things were before. When we go back to work more generally, post-COVID, we need to be able to compete, and we will do that only if we decide that we will adopt that 21st-century solution, and build fibre to the home."