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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the amount of funding allocated from the public purse to (a) fibre broadband installation and (b) mobile phone signal installations to improve digital connectivity in Gloucester.

Government has invested heavily in digital connectivity in Gloucester through its Superfast programme, which has invested over £34m across Gloucestershire, Hereford, and South Gloucestershire. The majority of this investment has supported fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) connections, with some fibre to the premise (FTTP) connections installed in harder to reach areas.

We received an expression of interest from Gloucester City Council in 2017 for the Local Full Fibre Network programme’s Challenge Fund, which is designed to fund locally-led public connectivity projects that have the potential to leverage commercial investment in full fibre broadband connections. Local bodies were invited to submit formal bids, and funding was allocated to 13 successful bidders that were announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement in March 2018. We expect the next round of funding to open in summer 2018. We did not receive a bid from Gloucester for the first wave of funding, so we would welcome a bid from them for this next round.

We are also encouraging fibre broadband rollout through our Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Small to medium sized businesses can claim a voucher worth up to £3,000 and residents can claim a voucher worth up to £500 as part of a group project. Businesses and local community groups interested in requesting a voucher can find details of suppliers in their local area on our website at https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/. So far in Gloucester there has been a total of 11 vouchers requested, so we would welcome further uptake of the scheme.

On mobile connectivity, the Government does not provide direct funding. Our approach is to deliver regulatory reforms that make it easier to roll out mobile infrastructure across the UK. That is why we have reformed the Electronic Communications Code, to encourage investment in the rollout of digital infrastructure by making deployment cheaper. The reforms came into force on 28 December 2017, and this will help expand current and future digital networks. We have also reformed mobile planning laws in England in November 2016, which provided new rights, for example, to build taller masts.