In his latest\u00a0monthly column for the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Michael has written about the need to improve broadband provision in Sevenoaks:<\/p>\n
Over Parliament\u2019s February recess, I visited the Falkland Islands in the first trip by a UK Defence Secretary in more than a decade.\u00a0 As well as meeting islanders and military personnel, I paid my respects to those who died in the 1982 war.\u00a0 Britain is committed to the Falkland Islands and they have a bright future ahead of them.<\/em><\/p>\n Sevenoaks\u2019 own bright future is always at the forefront of my mind.\u00a0 In particular, we must ensure that our town has the better, faster broadband it needs.\u00a0 Our local economy is buoyant, with over 500 more businesses set up and a 60 percent reduction in unemployment across my constituency since 2010.\u00a0 But, as the Chamber of Commerce has confirmed to me broadband is vital for the continued success of local businesses.<\/em><\/p>\n Superfast broadband expansion is as essential today as the introduction of gas, electricity and water networks in past centuries.\u00a0 The Government has put aside \u00a31.7 billion, of which over \u00a317 million has been spent in Kent.\u00a0 Progress has already been made: as of June 2015, superfast broadband availability in my constituency had reached 76 percent.\u00a0 But this needs to make more difference on the ground where there are still big gaps, particularly in more rural areas, for our businesses to prosper.<\/em><\/p>\n We must also ensure that we keep up with a world that is becoming faster and faster.\u00a0 With speeds of at least 100 megabits per second, ultrafast broadband is the future \u2013 and yet availability was at only 1.2 percent in June.<\/em><\/p>\n I will shortly be launching a fresh campaign to ensure that our town and local businesses have what they need to flourish.\u00a0 For a bright future, Sevenoaks needs better broadband; now and for years to come.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his latest\u00a0monthly column for the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Michael has written about the need to improve broadband provision in Sevenoaks: Over Parliament\u2019s February recess, I visited the Falkland Islands in the first trip by a UK Defence Secretary in more than a decade.\u00a0 As well as meeting islanders and military personnel, I paid my respects … Continue reading “Column: Let’s Give Local Businesses A Bright Future”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[465,452,464,462],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}