Chief of BT’s Openreach blames Brexit for hindering superfast broadband rollout
Chief exec of BT’s Openreach has said the UK’s ability to roll out superfast broadband has become increasingly difficult because of “tortuous” recruitment hurdles as a result of Brexit.
Clive Selley said in an interview this week that the situation can be contrasted to countries like Portugal and Spain, which have an abundance of people with the necessary skills to deliver ambitious roll out projects .
“They want the work, we want the skills and the Home Office have a process that is tortuous,” Selley said. “We are constraining the rate of fibre build in the UK through the process.”
The current system requires language tests as well as application fees, as reported by the Financial Times, and is becoming a major point of contention for major UK telcos players trying to move forward with targets.
An efficient broadband system is essential not only to the Conservative’s levelling up agenda, but also to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ ambitions for digital and tech leadership in Britain on a global stage.
Indeed, the last Tory manifesto laid out that the UK would have “full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025”.
The goal is to now have 99 per cent of homes connected by 2030, and Openreach has committed to spend £12bn to connect 25m homes by the end of 2026.
It is understood that while staffing is a challenge across the whole sector, it perhaps feels even more challenging given Openreach’s hefty build ambitions.
Adding to Selley’s comments, a spokesperson for Openreach told City A.M: “At Openreach, we’ve been successful in creating thousands of jobs and apprenticeships over the last few years – and we continue to hire and train people at a record rate – so we’re on track to deliver our ambitious targets.
“But access to labour is extremely tight across the entire industry, and particularly for construction partners, so that is having an effect on the overall pace of build. We want as many homes and business as possible to experience the benefits of ultrafast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband, so we’d welcome any measures to ease this constraint temporarily whilst the build is in full swing.”
Weighing in on Selley’s comments, TMT analyst for PP Foresight Paolo Pescatore told City PM: “It seems to be an easy way out to blame Brexit for everything as the gift that keeps on taking”.
“The cost of living crisis is having a profound impact on all companies; no one is immune. This will cause a domino effect and inevitably have a knock on effect on all of BT’s operations. This includes the rollout of fibre broadband which is set to be negatively impacted due to Brexit, attracting the right talent and the supply chain disruption”, he added.
Pescatore said the culmination of all of these factors would result in a “challenging environment” for the year ahead.