New £45m investment launched in improving rural broadband connectivity

The government is set to boost broadband access for rural businesses and communities as part of a £45m funding scheme.

The new funding for the government’s Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme adds to the £30m investment announced last year, increasing the total pot of funding available to £75m.

The money will be made available through grants to local authorities that have already applied for funding, in areas where broadband services at speeds of 30Mbps or faster are not available or planned.

The funding will be used to support full fibre wherever possible.

This announcement follows on from the launch of the Government’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review this week which outlined plans to prioritise hard-to-reach rural areas for roll out of full fibre connectivity.

Visiting North York Moors National Park today, Lord Gardiner will announce that North Yorkshire is one of the local authorities to receive funding through the scheme with a grant offer of over £11m.

Rural Affairs Minister Lord Gardiner said: “I am delighted to announce today that North Yorkshire has been awarded a grant of £11m towards improving its broadband infrastructure. Rural areas should not be left behind in the connectivity slow lane, missing out on the opportunities high speed broadband can bring.

“The funding made available through the Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme champions our countryside communities and businesses by opening up access to broadband of at least 30 Megabits per second, in some of the most hard to reach areas.”

The increased funding for the Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme is part of planned investment of at least £3.5bn into rural economies by 2020, supporting the quarter of businesses in the UK which are based in the countryside.

The scheme is delivered by the Rural Payments Agency and supports those rural areas which are not currently scheduled to receive broadband as part of commercial delivery plans or under the Government’s Superfast Broadband Programme, which expects to give access to superfast broadband to around 97% of UK premises over the next few years.