BROADBAND speeds in the region are the second slowest in Scotland, it has been revealed.

An Audit Scotland report shows people living in the Shetland Islands have access to quicker internet than Borderers.

Only Orkney is worse off.

And, while the Scottish Government has achieved its initial target to provide fibre broadband to 95 per cent of premises across the country, the 32-page document says it will be difficult to deliver its R100 pledge – to offer speeds of 30 megabits per second to every home and business by 2021.

Borders MP John Lamont (Cons) told us: “This report should be a wakeup call for the SNP who are great at promising and announcing things but poor when it comes to delivering those promises.

“While Scottish ministers are boasting about how well they are doing, too many residents and businesses in the Borders are still without decent broadband.

“The SNP’s timetable for this gets later and later and the R100 programme is yet to begin.

“While the UK as a whole has managed to make progress, in Scotland we are still lagging too far behind and we also know that many properties which are meant to be connected, still can’t get superfast broadband.

“The Borders is particularly struggling, with nearly one in five properties still without a decent service. This is simply not good enough and the SNP’s failure to deliver is holding Scottish businesses back and is unfair for consumers.”

The report shows around a quarter of those in rural areas, such as the Borders, still cannot get speeds of 10mbps or more.

The European Union’s definition of superfast internet, which the Scottish Government has adopted, is 30mbps.

But local MSP Christine Grahame (SNP) said there were positives to highlight: “Broadband access is in fact a matter reserved to the Tory UK Government, however if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the Scottish Government, the percentage of premises connected to fibre broadband in the Borders would be 39.3 per cent, rather than the current 91.4 per cent.

“This report recognises that the roll out won’t be easy to deliver, but that is why this SNP Government has matched its ambition for broadband with £600 million of investment – the biggest public investment ever made in a UK broadband project.

“I would highlight that the report also praises the Scottish Government for exceeding its target of 95 per cent fibre broadband coverage across Scotland by the end of 2017.

“And that, due to higher than expected take-up and lower than expected costs, the programme will in fact reach 60,300 more premises than planned – at no extra cost to the public sector.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful that, despite being a reserved matter, the UK Government’s funding contribution to R100 is just three per cent of the total – perhaps Mr Lamont should focus on putting pressure on his colleagues in the Tory UK Government to step up to the plate and better support Scotland’s ambitions.”