A LEADING Worcestershire Conservative has welcomed moves to give people a 'legal right' to faster broadband - calling the Government pledge "significant".

Councillor Ken Pollock, who sits in County Hall's Tory cabinet, says the announcement in last week's Queen Speech is a big boost to householders in rural areas.

Ministers intend to introduce a new law giving people a legal right to speeds of 10 megabits per second under a 'Digital Economy Bill'.

The move, which will need the support of parliament, comes after concerns the current BT-led roll-outs of superfast speeds across Britain is missing some areas out, including around five per cent of Worcestershire.

Councillor Pollock, cabinet member for economy, skills and infrastructure, said: "We've actually made pretty good progress in this county in providing broadband to the broad expanse of the county.

"But of course there has been certain sort of 'black spots' where this hasn't been possible and it's very interesting to draw attention to those comments in the Queen's Speech.

"It did sharpen up what Ed Vaizey (the culture minister) has been talking about, we all know there's been areas where people have been unable to get faster broadband, it might be too remote, too expensive, and we have a value for money threshold at the moment in this country.

"But the Queen's Speech sharpened up what Ed Vaizey's been talking about where we'll have a 'universal service obligation' so everybody can ask for, and have the right to receive, broadband speeds of 10 megabits per second.

"This is substantial and will enable anyone to do whatever they wish to do, certainly domestically if not in business - that's a very significant advance."

If it gets the backing of MPs the move will help around one million UK properties which would otherwise left behind.

Last week we revealed how all of Worcestershire's MPs suggested they would back the policy.

The county council's £28 million superfast project, which is also done via BT, is on track to reach 55,000 properties this summer.

So far 28 per cent of the 54,180 properties, some 15,000, have signed up to make it among the best-performing across Britain.

The policy is one of the Conservative leadership's flagship projects but has come under fire from the opposition Labour group, which has severely criticised the amount of public money going on it as "astonishing".

Of the county's £28 million scheme, which started three years ago, around £8.5 million has come directly from county taxpayers and the rest from either central Government or BT.

* Row over Worcestershire's £28m superfast broadband as Labour calls council's spend "astonishing"