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Written evidence submitted by Local Government Association
About the Local Government Association
The LGA is the national voice of local government. We work with councils to support, promote and improve local government.
We are a politically led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government. We aim to influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to councils, so they are able to deliver local solutions to national problems.
Key Messages
• Councils are best placed to understand the digital needs of their areas and ensure that local policy, such as planning and highways regulation, is streamlined to help improve connectivity. It is vital that mobile network operators and the Government work with councils to deliver their ambitious programme.
• The Government should fully fund a digital champion in every local authority. Local authority digital champions act as a point of contact, helping extend gigabit-capable broadband.
• Mobile operators must not shy away from engaging communities through local planning regimes on the deployment of mobile infrastructure and the trade-off between improved connectivity and the conversation of local landscapes.
• Councils need well-resourced planning and licensing teams so that they can work more proactively with the private sector and other partners to support the roll-out of digital infrastructure.
• We urge Government to revoke permitted development rights as it undermines councils’ and their communities’ long-term planning decisions and place-making ambitions.
• We are concerned that councils in rural communities continue to lag behind more densely populated areas in the roll-out of 5G and wider improvements to mobile digital connectivity. We look forward to working with the Government to strengthen investment and innovation to ensure universal access to high-quality digital infrastructure.
• Digital access and skills are essential to enabling people to fully participate in an increasingly digital society and engage in a 21st century education and employment.
• Councils want to go further to tackle regional inequalities in broadband infrastructure and accelerate the roll out in hard-to-reach communities. Councils run initiatives to tackle digital exclusion such as digital skills improvement support and refurbish old equipment for donation or lending to residents who lack appropriate devices.
Councils continue to play a leading role in digital connectivity, and this has built up a pool of internal expertise that has helped facilitate both roll-out and take-up. However, with the centralised management of Project Gigabit within Building Digital UK (BDUK), there is a risk this local expertise could be lost. Given the right funding and opportunity to work in partnership with government, councils could play an enhanced role targeting left behind communities, driving demand stimulation and providing digital upskilling.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) Wireless Infrastructure Strategy recognises the value of local government digital champions. The strategy identifies the integral role to the development and implementation of a local Digital Infrastructure Strategy. Digital champions promote the social and economic benefits of improved connectivity to residents and businesses.
The LGA welcomed the Government’s commitment to providing £180 million over the next three years as part of the overall investment for the shared rural network. It is important, however, that in striving to become a world leader in 5G coverage the Government does not lose sight of ensuring the Shared Rural Network delivers high quality 4G coverage for rural communities.
Whilst initiatives like the Shared Rural Network place front and centre commitments to increase coverage across the country, a look at the fine print shows much more limited ambitions. Ofcom’s recent 700Mhz spectrum auction outlined the regulator views ‘good quality” 4G coverage as “single-user download speed of 2 Mbps with a better than 90% probability.’ Its recently published Shared Rural Network coverage methodology sets required coverage at a minimum of -105dbm of signal strength. This would register as a single bar of coverage on an iPhone 7 plus, something which is already out of step with consumer expectation today, let alone in five years’ time.
To date, we have found that there is often a disconnect between the level of coverage mobile network operators claim to provide and the real-life experience of residents. Many councils are reporting increases in dropped calls and outages, especially in rural areas. We are also hearing from councils that the ongoing cost of data and higher levels of unreliability severely reduce the viability of ‘stop gap’ interim solutions. It is also evident 4G solutions may not always be effective in rural areas due to lack of coverage, which further reduces options available to communities.
The LGA has called for MNOs to collaborate more effectively with local government and share information on their infrastructure deployment plans, via non-disclosure agreements, to help councils ascertain where public policy interventions can bring the most value. This must also be supplemented with more accurate coverage data to help local bodies understand which areas need the most help with improving their mobile connectivity.
Whether or not a mobile mast is permitted development (PD) – a national grant of planning permission whereby councils can only consider a limited number of conditions associated with development – will depend on its height and location.
A local planning authority (LPA) is required to consult on planning applications and certain prior approval applications. Both types of applications must be publicised to local residents by putting up a site notice or sending letters to neighbours. Planning applications must also be published on the LPA’s website. The Government encourages LPAs to further publicise prior approval applications to allow local residents to “make their views known”.
While residents can comment on any matter related to the development, only matters relevant to the application, such as siting and appearance, can be considered by the LPA in determination. Mast deployment should consider location fully, and be ideally located near existing vertical infrastructure (lamps, other masts, trees, council buildings). They should not be deployed in places that would impact footfall, disability access, road use or visual aesthetics.
Mobile operators must not shy away from engaging communities through local planning regimes on the deployment of mobile infrastructure and the trade-off between improved connectivity and the conversation of local landscapes. In a recent LGA survey of councils, 80 per cent of respondents outlined they had amended or were looking to amend local plans to ensure a more streamlined approach to digital infrastructure deployment.
Understanding who a councils stakeholders are, what level of coverage is currently estimated (by Ofcom) and where a mast may be deployed, will support council decision making. Councillors can play an important role working with mobile infrastructure providers and residents to find the best places to site masts.
Councils also need well-resourced planning and licensing teams so that they can work more proactively with the private sector and other partners to support the roll-out of digital infrastructure. The LGA continues to call for councils to be allowed to set their own planning fees to cover the true costs of assessing applications and prior approval notifications, and reflect the costs and demands placed on these services.
Local authorities have experienced a £15 billion reduction, almost 60 per cent in real terms, to core government funding between 2010 and 2020. Planning departments have faced the highest cut of any service between 2009/10 and 2020/21 with net spending per person on planning dropping by 59 per cent. Overall, there is a significant challenge in resourcing local planning authority teams. Councils all over England are struggling to recruit and retain planners. Alongside the difficulties in recruitment and retention of qualified town planners, there is a much more significant challenge in relation to specific planning skills and areas of expertise, such as heritage and conservation.
We live in an increasingly digital world, with banking, democratic functions, job applications, benefits and other public services increasingly being moved online. Digital skills, equipment and reliable digital connectivity are crucial to enable people to fully participate in society and engage in 21st century education and employment systems.
Councils play an important role tackling digital exclusion. Functions, such as children’s services, adult social care, adult education, business support and libraries, all have contact with people who may be digitally excluded. Councils run initiatives to tackle digital exclusion such as digital skills improvement support and refurbish old equipment for donation or lending to residents who lack appropriate devices. Councils also have well established relationships with local voluntary and community sector organisations who are an effective channel to socially excluded groups.
According to recent LGA research there has been important progress in closing the digital divide in the coverage of superfast and ‘decent’ fixed broadband. However, a new digital divide has emerged in gigabit and full fibre coverage. The top 10% of district/unitary local authority areas enjoy full fibre coverage of over 60%, while the bottom 10% have less than 10% of premises able to access these services. A substantial gap also remains between rural (47%) and urban areas (79%) in terms of gigabit coverage.
Fixed broadband penetration is positively correlated with economic activity and educational attainment. Each 10-percentage point increase in fixed broadband penetration is associated with a 4-percentage point increase in the economic activity rate and about 3 points in the average attainment 8 score at Key Stage 4.
The recent House of Lords Digital Committee report on digital exclusion found the Government does not have a ‘credible strategy’ on tackling digital exclusion and reinforces our own findings that there is little strategic guidance to councils from Government on closing the digital divide. Councils know their communities best and have the responsibilities, relationships, and assets to play a key role in encouraging older, vulnerable, and disadvantaged households to get online.
Concerns remain that rural councils continue to lag more densely populated areas in the roll-out of 5G and wider improvements to digital connectivity. 17 per cent of rural residential premises and 30 per cent of rural commercial premises still do not have access to superfast broadband.
The LGA’s recent report, Rural recognition, recovery, resilience and revitalisation, explores the economic challenges facing rural and coastal areas, with a particular focus on deprivation, and outlines what steps government can take to strengthen the recovery and resilience of these communities within the current context.
With the shift to home and hybrid working, residents in these areas face a particular disadvantage in the labour market. Similarly, businesses who are unable to pivot their working models due to poor connectivity may be at risk. To truly level up communities across the country, Government must commit to continued transparency on contingency measures for those residents who are in deeply rural and hard-to-reach areas.
Analysis from the County Councils Network shows that just 21 per cent of premises in county areas have access to gigabit broadband, compared with London with 70 per cent gigabit coverage, and large towns and cities in the North and the West Midlands with an average of 51 per cent.
April 2024