A government obligation to provide superfast broadband speeds across the UK must be enshrined in law to meet planned delivery by 2020, according to the CLA.

The organisation which represents farmers, landowners and rural businesses has responded to a consultation on how the Universal Service Obligation (USO) should be designed to make sure those who live and work in the countryside are not excluded from access to affordable and effective superfast broadband.

CLA President Ross Murray said: “A USO that can guarantee sufficient bandwidth will transform rural areas and must be enshrined in law. Only half of rural homes and businesses can receive a broadband connection with speeds of 10Mbps. That should be a benchmark minimum speed which evolves as technological advances are made. It may work in 2020 but could be insufficient just five years later so the USO must be easily amended to meet the future needs of the market place and the consumer.”

He added that the USO must also come with a legal guarantee for consumer compensation where this speed is not met.

He said: “If the current mode of broadband fails to deliver, the consumer should be able to explore alternative means of connection from fibre to satellite and wireless.”

Mr Murray said that given the number of infrastructure providers in the market place and the different number of technologies currently available, it made sense for more than one universal service provider to be appointed.

He said: “This would reduce the burden on a single provider and give consumers more choice to reasonably request the USO at an affordable rate. As long as there is a suitably effective and efficient framework to implement the USO providers could be at regional level, particularly when considering other technologies such as wireless.”