Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has revealed the government has scaled up its plans for high-speed broadband provision across the UK.

The Conservative-led coalition has previously maintained that it is aiming to bring next-generation access to 90 per cent of homes and businesses as part of its plan to give Britain the best super-fast broadband infrastructure in Europe.

In order to achieve this goal, some £530 million has been set aside from the BBC licence fee to subsidise broadband rollouts in areas that will not be covered by deployments from the private sector.

However, speaking at the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference, Mr Alexander announced the government's target has been expanded to include all premises in the UK.

"We have prioritised the money to invest to make sure that high-speed broadband gets to every part of the country," the MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey remarked.

The government's goal of returning the UK to economic prosperity is being hampered by low-quality infrastructure, he added, stating: "Too many businesses are being held back by congested roads, slow railways and inadequate broadband."

However, Mr Alexander stopped short of announcing how the coalition intends to achieve this scaled-up target or giving an exact definition of "high-speed broadband".

His comments come shortly after Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt told delegates at the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention that changes in regulation are needed to support and encourage the deployment of high-speed internet services.

Mr Hunt insisted competition is the biggest driver of investment at retail and network level, but argued the market is currently not functioning as effectively as it should be.

For instance, he claimed the process of BT reaching a satisfactory conclusion on pricing for wholesale access to its duct and pole infrastructure is taking too long.

"It's also important that we have a properly competitive market in retail fibre," Mr Hunt added.

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