Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that sure homes in Hampshire that are not included in the gigabit broadband tendering process by suppliers can still get superfast broadband.

In Hampshire, just over 97% of premises can access superfast broadband (>=30Mbps), which is in line with the UK national average.

As part of Project Gigabit, we have launched a regional procurement in Hampshire, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to up to 88,000 hard-to-reach premises that are not included in suppliers’ commercial build plans. We have also launched a local procurement in the New Forest area, which will connect an estimated further 10,000 premises. The two contracts have a combined indicative value of almost £120 million and we aim to award contracts between April and June 2023.

Eligible premises in Hampshire can also receive a gigabit-capable connection through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.

For the very hardest to reach premises which are unlikely to receive gigabit-capable connectivity via either a commercial or government funded delivery mechanism, the Government is determined to explore all possible options to improve their broadband connectivity, including solutions such as satellite and fixed wireless access technologies.