Rural Scotland is being 'totally left behind' by SNP's flagship superfast broadband programme, says Labour MSP Rhoda Grant

Rhoda Grant MSP says the Scottish Government needs to speak to rural communities

Rural areas are still waiting on superfast broadband being rolled out.

A Highlands and Islands MSP says the slowness of the SNP’s flagship superfast broadband programme means people in rural Scotland are being “totally left behind”.

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant says people in places like the Highlands and Islands are being ignored by the Scottish Government, as they are still in the dark on how long it will take for them to be hooked up to superfast broadband.

Ms Grant is now urging the government to move faster in rolling out its R100 programme, and to speak to smaller communities to find out exactly what their needs are.

Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

The government’s Reaching 100 (R100) project was launched back in 2017 and aimed to bring fast internet connections to thousands of homes and businesses by the end of 2021.

This will bring speeds of at least 30 megabits per second to everyone in Scotland.

However the scheme is now not expected to be completed until 2028 because of numerous delays, including a legal challenge which saw the contract for the programme in the north of Scotland not awarded until December 2020.

Ms Grant says these delays are having a huge strain on those living and working in rural Scotland.

She said: “Whole communities are being left behind.

“Because these are small communities nothing is done about it - they are easy to ignore.

“A lot of people have no idea when they are going to be getting it and even though there was a promise to give priority to the hardest to reach areas, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

She said broadband should be treated as a “universal service” as people cannot live without it, saying this is particularly true the more remote someone lives.

Ms Grant added: “The trouble is the vast majority of people have good access and the ones that don’t are totally left behind.”

Those homes and businesses not covered by the R100 scheme are able to apply for a one-off voucher of £5,000 to help them set up a permanent superfast connection themselves.

Ms Grant branded the voucher scheme a “tick box” exercise and said communities in Orkney had tried to club their vouchers together to get a community scheme set up, but were told they were not allowed to do this.

The government disputes this, saying this option has been done before in Ardnamurchan.

Ms Grant added: “The government has to deal with each individual community and put some more effort into speaking to local people, local government and small providers.

“It is the small providers who are using different technology, so the government needs to speak to them to get a solution to this.”

A spokesman for the government it is committed to bringing superfast broadband to rural areas.

They added: “Despite telecoms legislation being reserved to the UK Government, more than £600 million is being invested in the Scottish Government’s R100 contracts, providing access to faster and more reliable broadband to more than 114,000 homes and businesses throughout Scotland.”