Housing developers should put a special new ‘kitemark’ on their new builds, says the Local Government Association (LGA).
The reason: to reassure homebuyers before completion their new home “will have a digital connection fit for the 21st century”.
As it stands, points out the body, which cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government, developers only have an obligation to connect water and electricity before a property is sold, but don’t have to do anything about its broadband connectivity.
But with a digital connection now widely seen as an everyday essential alongside traditional utilities, it is vital home owners know what to expect when they buy a newly built property, thinks the body.
It also wants that standard to be as high as possible, ideally delivering optical Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connectivity levels, where download speeds up to 1Gbps, as well as very high upload speeds, are feasible, it claims.
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The problem: only 32% of properties built in rural England in 2017 were connected that way FTTP broadband – and 17% of rural new builds are unable to achieve the government’s broadband universal service obligation’s minimum download speed of 10Mbps and upload speed of 1Mbps which it aims to deliver by 2020, it claims (2017 data).
For Councillor Mark Hawthorne, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, “Connecting our rural residents to future-proofed, fast and reliable broadband is vital to helping them get on in life and benefit from the advantages that decent digital connectivity can bring.
“The standard of digital connectivity we provide to our new build homes should reflect our national ambition to roll out world-class digital infrastructure across the country. Residents will no longer tolerate digital connectivity taking a backseat in developers’ plans.
“We call on the government, homebuilders and the broadband industry to work with us and develop the details of this proposal and give homebuyers the confidence to invest in a new home, knowing they won’t be stuck in the digital slow lane.”
