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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the merits of increasing the voucher support in successor schemes to the Broadband Upgrade Fund for small communities under 100 dwellings.

The Broadband Upgrade Fund was a pilot conducted in the three areas of the UK from June 2020 to January 2021, running in parallel with the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. It was set up to test whether we could collate demand for broadband in an area that suppliers could observe in order to see if this would attract new suppliers to build in rural areas.

The final stage of the Broadband Upgrade Fund only recently completed, in January 2021. A full assessment of the effectiveness of the Broadband Upgrade Fund Pilot will be undertaken once there has been sufficient opportunity for proposals to turn into gigabit capable connections. Following this assessment the Department will determine whether this approach is incorporated into the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme has existed since March 2018, and has provided eligible areas across the UK with vouchers to cover the installation of costs of bringing gigabit connectivity to people’s homes and businesses. So far more than 66,000 vouchers worth up to £127 million have been issued to premises across the UK.

Following the government’s announcement on 19 March 2021, rural homes and businesses across the UK currently struggling with slow broadband speeds will continue to be able to benefit from this unique form of funding without needing to wait for coverage under the new Project Gigabit procurement contracts. The government is investing up to £210 million to build on the success of its Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and the new scheme is due to go live on 8 April 2021.

The new vouchers will be worth up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses. There will be an online postcode checker available so people can check if their home or business is eligible. They can then search for and select a supplier that they wish to work with to set up a group project for their community. Suppliers registered to the scheme will guide each beneficiary through the process of application, and then, if eligible, through to connection. Group projects can be for as few as two premises only so are ideal for groups of less than 100 dwellings. If communities can group together to aggregate the value of their vouchers they can often accumulate enough funding to cover most or all of the costs for installation.