{"id":6978,"date":"2019-11-22T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T11:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2019-11-22T11:51:13","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T11:51:13","slug":"economic-benefits-of-labour-plan-to-provide-free-broadband-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/blog\/economic-benefits-of-labour-plan-to-provide-free-broadband-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic benefits of Labour plan to provide free broadband for all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This letter from 13 PEF Council members appeared in the Guardian<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We write to support the proposal from the Labour party for a public programme to provide rapid internet service to the entire population (Broadband \u2018communism\u2019? They said that about the NHS<\/a>, Journal, 19 November). This project would have a high social and economic rate of return, especially at current borrowing rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since it would be socially profitable, the objection that the proposal is an election \u201cgiveaway\u201d should not be taken seriously \u2013 that is not an objection raised for other infrastructure projects such as airports and motorways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguments from self-interested corporations that a public sector programme would discourage private sector investment should be seen as unfounded special pleading. This pleading also ignores the fact that this network would create many more opportunities for web content providers to profit in a space where something approaching a real market operates, and is, therefore, decidedly selective in its view. Finally, to claim that this is an activity more appropriate for the private sector is a political assertion that fails to take account of the manifest failure of private companies to provide a broadband network accessible to all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Allen<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Chair, Progressive Economy Forum,\u00a0<\/em>John Weeks<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Emeritus professor of Development Economics, Soas,\u00a0<\/em>Ha-Joon Chang<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>University reader in the political economy of development, Cambridge University,\u00a0<\/em>Danny Dorling<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Halford Mackinder professor of geography, Oxford University,\u00a0<\/em>Susan Himmelweit<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Emeritus professor of economics, Open University,\u00a0<\/em>Will Hutton\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>Principal of Hertford College, Oxford University,\u00a0<\/em>Johnna Montgomerie<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Reader in international political economy, King\u2019s College London,\u00a0<\/em>Richard Murphy<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Professor of political economy, City, University of London,\u00a0<\/em>Guy Standing<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Professorial research associate, Soas,\u00a0<\/em>Sue Konzelmann<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Reader in management, Birkbeck, University of London,\u00a0<\/em>Stephany Griffith-Jones<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Financial markets director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University,\u00a0<\/em>Daniela Gabor\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>Professor of economics and macrofinance, University of the West of England,\u00a0<\/em>Natalya Naqvi\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>Assistant professor in international political economy, LSE<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This letter from 13 PEF Council members, on the prospect of free, publicly-owned broadband, was published in the Guardian. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,206],"class_list":["post-6978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-investment-and-industrial-strategy","tag-ownership"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":237,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"pef","display_name":"PEF"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6982,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978\/revisions\/6982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressiveeconomyforum.com\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}