Brown promises super-fast broadband 'for every home' by 2020

Gordon Brown today set out plans to ensure super-fast broadband for every home, in a move he claimed could slash billions from public service costs and create more than 250,000 jobs.

The Prime Minister pledged a "radical" package of internet-led measures - coupled with funding to be announced in Wednesday's Budget - to transform the UK by 2020.

Some £30 million will be allocated to create an Institute of Web Science, headed by internet inventor Sir Tim Berners Lee and leading scientist Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

And he warned that Tory proposals risked creating a "digital divide", with large parts of the country missing out on the advantages of an advance as significant as the arrival of electricity.

Mr Brown plans to give everyone in the country a personalised webpage for accessing services within four years in a bid to reduce the cost of face-to-face contacts with officials.

Job centres and physical offices dealing with tax, vehicle licensing, passports and housing benefit could be closed within 10 years.

Unions have complained that thousands of public sector workers would be made jobless and personal data put at risk given the State's poor security record in recent years.

But Mr Brown said it was vital that the UK was at the forefront of new technology.

"I want Britain to be the world leader in the digital economy which will create over a quarter of a million skilled jobs by 2020, the world leader in public service delivery where we can give voice and choice to citizens, parents, patients and consumers, and the world leader in the new politics where that voice for feedback and deliberative decisions can transform the way we make local and national decisions," he will say in a speech.

"I want to make a radical set of proposals which include transfers and shifts in existing spending, including being prepared to cancel current projects, and which - together with more detailed plans set out by the Chancellor in the Budget on Wednesday - will help us to save billions of pounds a year in public sector costs in the next few years."

Referring to the Institute of Web Science, Mr Brown went on: "This will help place the UK at the cutting edge of research on the semantic web and other emerging web and internet technologies, and ensure that government is taking the right funding decisions to position the UK as a world leader.

"And we will invite universities and private sector web developers and companies to join this collaborative project."

The Tories have promised to provide universal access to super-fast broadband - using digital switchover cash from the BBC licence fee to make up any shortfalls in market-led provision.

But Labour insists state help will be needed upfront to ensure rural areas do not lose out and has introduced a 50p tax on existing landlines to pay for it.

The Opposition has said it would scrap the levy and Mr Brown warned that risks creating a "lasting, pervasive and damaging new digital divide".

"Super-fast broadband is the electricity of the digital age. And I believe it must be for all - not just for some," he said - arguing that it goes far beyond the convenience of online shopping.

Relying on the market to roll out super-fast broadband "would allow the country to become split between a fast-track and a slow-track to the future", and "betrays a total failure to grasp the scale of the educational, economic and social opportunities that it brings".

"Faster broadband speeds will bring new, cheaper, more personalised and more effective public services to people; it will bring games and entertainment options with new levels of sophistication; it will make accessing goods and services immeasurably easier," he said.

"So one vision for digital Britain would create two nations: one digitally privileged, one digitally deprived. And this will mean a massive penalty in economic development to those who are denied access because of a failure of government to rise to the challenge where markets fail.

"The alternative is our vision: ensuring, not simply hoping for, universal coverage."

Liberal Democrat media spokesman Don Foster said: "It is absolutely vital that we invest in our digital infrastructure.

"Britain is already lagging behind other countries with faster internet speeds so intervention is needed.

"Investment in rural areas must start early to avoid an expanding digital divide.

"The Government must provide exemptions from the tax for pensioners and the least well-off and ensure everyone is equipped with the skills to use super-fast broadband."