POOR mobile phone coverage in large parts of Hampshire will soon be a thing of the past, a Cabinet minister has pledged.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid vowed that 90 per cent of the UK would boast coverage in two years’ time – dramatically reducing huge ‘partial notspots’ across the county.

And he said that further improvements would push that to “better than 90 per cent”, giving the country “some of the best coverage in the world”.

Mr Javid said: “Mobiles are not a luxury, as they were 20 years ago, but are seen as a necessity, so you can make voice calls wherever you are in the UK.”

But the Culture Secretary also defended London grabbing by far the largest chunk of arts spending – arguing that it was a “cultural engine that helps all the UK”.

The comments follow the striking of a £5billion deal requiring the big four mobile phone companies to each provide coverage to all but ten per cent of the landmass by 2017.

In Hampshire, no less than 19 per cent of the land area is served by only one or two of the four networks – leaving customers of the others without a signal.

The Isle of Wight (18 per cent) is almost as blighted, but Southampton is among only five areas – with Derby, Manchester, Liverpool and Slough – with no ‘partial notspots’.

Before Christmas, Mr Javid abandoned plans to introduce “national roaming” – allowing customers to swap between networks – after the Home Secretary protested that this could aid terrorists.

But he insisted that the new idea was an improvement, a legally binding agreement on EE, O2, Three and Vodafone to extend investment to remote areas.

And he said: “You won’t find a single country the size of Britain, with a similar landmass, that has 100 per cent mobile coverage – or that has a plan for that – because of geography.”

Coverage would be extended further through the £150m Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP), which will pay to put up extra mobile phone masts in uncovered areas.

Last autumn, it was revealed that people in 272 local authorities have spent more on Lottery tickets than they have received in return for arts projects, since 1995.

These include New Forest (£8.7m), Basingstoke and Deane (£8.2m), Fareham (£6.8m), Test Valley (£6.7m), Gosport (£5.3m) and Eastleigh (£4.4m).

In stark contrast, four London boroughs boast ‘surpluses’ topping £100m – Westminster (£393.7m), Lambeth (£171.8m), Camden (£143.2m) and Islington (£122.2m).

But Mr Javid insisted that the Arts Council was “making progress” in reducing that imbalance and said: “It’s not as straightforward as people sometimes present it.

“You can’t just take a chunk of money from London.”