Following parliamentary reform on 24th January, Stephen Timms, has moved from his role of Competitiveness at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (which replaced the Department of Trade and Industry in June 2007). Baroness Shriti Vadera, (previously advisor to Gordon Brown as the Chancellor of the Exchequer) will be taking over from Timms in the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business and Competitiveness. Her background is in business, having worked at UBS Warburg as an investment banker for over 14 years before moving to the Treasury.
The Confederation of British Industry, the voice of business, expressed concern at the rate of turnover of business ministers.
"This is the fifth minister in this role in less than three years. The constant changing of faces and portfolios has been unhelpful to building a long-term dialogue, so it is important that we now see a period of stability."
Lucy Findlay (head of enterprise), CBI
Stephen Timms has worked hard in his roles over the years helping the IT and Telecommunications industries be recognised, and encouraged growth and investment into new and faster broadband. Vadera is said to be continuing Timms' approach to developing next generation broadband technologies such as fibre to the home (FTTH).
This is the problem with government in general, people change jobs so much they do not care about the long term, they only care about what they can do now! We need long term solutions that will benefit the country, not just broadband, but everything the government has control over.