Ofcom has said that if us Britons want faster connections for VoD and similar bandwidth hungry applications, then we will have to pay for it.

Speaking at a Video on Demand conference last week Jeremy Olivier, who is the regulators head of convergent media, thinks that ADSL2+ with at least a 24Mbps speed were needed for such applications and consumers would "have to pay to build this."

What he has failed to grasp is that for most people a ADSL2+ connection will be nothing like 24Mbps with only those living very close to the exchange fully benefiting.
During the conference it was said that ISPs thought the costs were prohibitive and there was not the consumer demand at the moment to build faster networks.

While faster copper networks would improve the situation, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the UK needs to more to fibre based systems to provide faster networks, either to fully fibre to the home or at least to the cabinet (FTTC). But as with all things costs will have great effect on when and how this is implemented.