By Richard Wray: The government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce its controversial £6-a-year broadband levy before the election, despite potential opposition from the Conservatives.
Stephen Timms, the treasury minister in charge of implementing the Digital Britain plan, said today that a 50p a month levy on all UK phone lines will be contained in this year’s finance bill.
“My aim is that we should legislate for that this side of a general election,” he said at a debate on IT and the economy in London organised by BCS, the chartered institute for IT.
The levy would raise £150 million to £175 million a year, Timms said, for a fund to support the development of superfast broadband networks over the next seven years.
But the response of the Conservatives to the plan has been lukewarm at best, leading to concerns that the levy would have to be ditched.
Parliamentary convention dictates that this close to a general election
This article originally appeared in © Guardian News & Media Ltd..
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