Broadband Use 'Might be Stymied by Housing Slump'

Growth of broadband has potentially been negatively affected by the ongoing property downturn in the UK, Carphone Warehouse has suggested.

Releasing its latest trading update, the retailer said that revenue from its fixed line broadband service is to remain flat over months to come; this is a drastic downwards revision of June's prediction of four or five per cent growth. Carphone Warehouse also said that, despite previous predictions of the firm gaining 400,000 new broadband customers this year, just 200-250,000 were now predicted to join.

Carphone Warehouse's comments follow further negative house price data from Nationwide. The lender's survey found that, this month, the average home has lost over eight per cent of its value in the past 12 months; the worst rate of annual decline measured since the survey began in 1991. Recent figures from the Bank of England also show that mortgage approval levels are currently running at just one-third of their level a year ago.

The credit crisis, which has seen many lenders pull their cheaper loans and impose rate increases on other mortgages, has been blamed for the sector's malaise.

Charles Dunstone founder and chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, said that he was "very gloomy about the economy" and remained "cautious about the consumer environment". However, he also termed the firm's latest trading results as "very good".

The retailer currently retains around 2,400 outlets in the UK.