Former Lord calls Landline Duty a 'new Poll Tax'

The Landline Duty could turn out to be a PR disaster for the government

A former member of the House of Lords has launched a scathing attack on the government's proposed Landline Duty, comparing it to the Poll Tax and questioning the motives behind its introduction.

The Earl of Lytton, a hereditary peer who left the House in 1999, said that charging people who do not access the internet is "intrinsically wrong" and fails the basic test of a "fair and justifiable tax".

He warned the government that introducing such a duty is likely to attract a public backlash and could "create digital martyrs and may potentially be a political and PR disaster area (c.f. the Poll Tax)".

The Earl also questioned the motives behind the proposed duty, claiming that the government is seeking every area of additional money raising to reduce its huge deficit.

He added that the system of charging people per line, whether it had ADSL capability or not, was unfair and "smacks of industry pleading together with Treasury connivance rather than an objective attempt to create a fair charge base".

The Earl called on the government to guarantee that any money raised through such a system would be set aside for the provision of further digital services.

"None of this will be politically acceptable or practically achievable if HM Treasury fails to agree that the sums raised shall be ring-fenced to the proposed digital network rather than simply going into the Consolidated Fund," he said.

The Earl also argued that the government's phasing out of analogue radio and TV transmissions in order to release and sell off additional bandwidth licences had been poorly handled.

"In selling off these assets, and managing the proceeds of past sell-offs, it should be doing so in a way that creates reinvestment in the sector. Sadly we have what appears to be a system failure in the provision of Digital Britain objectives," he said.

The Earl concluded by calling for the proposals to be scrapped and for "an independent and expert group with greater competence to consider the matter and provide recommendations of an appropriate quality".