Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to introduce an equivalent of the Welsh Access Broadband Cymru scheme in England.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) scheme is run by the Welsh Government and provides grants to fund (or part-fund) the installation costs of new broadband connections for homes and businesses in Wales. New connections through this scheme must deliver a step change in speed, with at least double current download speeds. However, it does not require all connections to be gigabit-capable.
The UK Government’s focus is on the delivery of Project Gigabit across the whole of the UK. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion mission to deliver lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK. Over 75% of UK premises now have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection, which is a significant increase from 6% in January 2019.
We are delivering a series of procurements to provide subsidies to broadband suppliers to build gigabit-capable infrastructure to premises that will not be reached by suppliers’ commercial plans alone. We have already awarded eight Project Gigabit contracts and launched a further 18 procurements across the country, making over £1.2 billion of funding available to cover up to 850,000 premises. The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme also provides a subsidy of up to £4,500 for residents and businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband via local community broadband projects.