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Brown promises ‘broadband for all’

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Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Low-income families could get vouchers worth up to £700 to get them online, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised.

Details of the £300 million scheme, that aims to get a million of the UK’s poorest families online, will be revealed in Brown’s speech at the Labour Party conference later today.

Although around 58 per cent of British households already have a broadband connection, the scheme will target families of the 1.4 million children who do not have internet access at home to help them get broadband, software and even computers.

Studies have shown that computer-literate children go on to be higher earners in later life and Brown said that his new plan will “give everyone a chance”.

The means-tested Education Technology Allowance scheme will run for three years and families will receive vouchers worth between £100 and £700.

Brown will tell delegates: “To ensure we are prepared for the times to come, the government will fund one million more households to get online, enabling parents to link with teachers and their children's schools to help young people with homework and coursework.”

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “It is extremely important that all school-age children have access to the internet at home to ensure that they don’t fall behind those classmates on the other side of the digital divide.”

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