Policy Hub

Every year, Openreach applies for hundreds of thousands of permits to work in every part of the country. And as we ramp up our build to deliver ultrafast, ultra reliable Full Fibre broadband to 25 million homes and businesses, the number of permits we need is expected to double.

The current system is not suited to the type of work we’re doing – which unlike other utilities, is high volume and low duration. Which also means it’s relatively low impact.

Applying for permits creates an admin burden for us, but also for our partners in local authorities, and it slows down our rollout.

Flexi permits offer an alternative solution. They allow for multiple streets to be permitted at once, cutting processing times for local authorities and reducing our permitting requirements by as much as 90% in some cases.

The Department for Transport has agreed to undertake a set of trials, which we are supporting and are keen to see this policy implemented as soon as possible, so that more homes and businesses can be connected.

Across the UK there are thousands of multi-dwelling units. These range from blocks of flats, through to houses that have been converted into apartments.

While we are allowed to enter communal areas to repair the copper network, we’re not allowed to upgrade residents to Full Fibre. To do this, we need a wayleave given by the owner of the building, and this isn’t as straightforward as it sounds. Where we can’t secure a wayleave, we are unable to install the fibre into the building.

We estimate that our Full Fibre is currently outside around 801,000* MDUs, most of which are ‘small’, meaning there’s between one and 30 flats within the building.

The government recently introduced a ‘workaround’ called the Telecommunications Infrastructure Leasehold Property Act, or TILPA. But our trials show that this is not working.

In Glasgow we found that it increased the cost of building by 160%, which is money away from upgrading other homes and businesses.

We want to work with government and the wider industry to develop a solution and prevent a future digital divide.

Automatic upgrade rights are the way forward, allowing us to use the same access rights to upgrade flats as we would to repair their broadband.

*Figure updated in November 2023 and does not match the video content.

Every year BT Group pays towards the government’s Apprenticeship Levy, and over the last three years Openreach has used around half of that to hire and train 10,000 apprentices.

We’ve done this in-house, in our 10 purpose built, state of the art training schools, and have worked closely with national bodies to ensure that our courses are developed and delivered to the highest, industry recognised standards.

However, with nearly 30,000 engineers, we now need to focus on reskilling our workforce. This means ensuring our copper engineers can also install and maintain the fibre network. The levy in its current form doesn’t offer the flexibility we need to provide short courses and accreditations to our existing workforce, many of whom will have already secure an apprenticeship and therefore aren’t eligible for a second.

It also doesn’t let us train the next generation of civil engineers who are already highly skilled and highly qualified. Without reform, it will be increasingly challenging to provide our engineers with the skills they need to evolve with the industry.