Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to support rural communities increase levels of broadband connectivity.

The Government is committed to improve digital connectivity in rural areas. Project Gigabit is the Government’s £5 billion programme to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to rural and hard-to-reach communities across the UK. Alongside suppliers’ commercial rollout plans, our target is to achieve 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025, and then nationwide coverage by 2030. Over 78% of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, which represents significant progress since January 2019, when coverage was just 6%.

Through our 12 Project Gigabit contracts, including one in Cumbria, and 27 current live procurements, we have made over £2 billion of funding available to suppliers to bring gigabit-capable broadband to up to 1.1 million premises in hard to reach parts of the country.

Support is also available for homes and businesses in some rural areas through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Over 100,00 vouchers have been used to connect rural homes and businesses with fast, reliable broadband.

In April 2023, the Government announced a capital grants scheme to provide up to 35,000 premises with help to access Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite equipment to improve their connectivity. The scheme will be open to premises that the department has identified as being unlikely to benefit from an improved fixed line, or fixed wireless access connection. More information on eligibility for this scheme will be announced shortly.

The department is also consulting on future policy solutions for Very Hard to Reach premises. In October 2023, we launched two consultations, one on the Broadband Universal Service Obligation and one setting out our proposed policy approach to connecting Very Hard to Reach premises across the UK. We welcome contributions to both consultations until they close on Monday 27 November.

To improve mobile coverage in rural areas, the Government is working with the UK’s four mobile network operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network. This agreement will see the Government and industry jointly invest over £1 billion to increase outdoor 4G mobile coverage across the UK to 95% by the end of 2025. The programme targets areas of the country with partial or no 4G coverage, in rural and hard-to-reach locations across the UK. 4G coverage across the UK is currently approaching 93%, which is up from 91% when the Shared Rural Network deal was signed in March 2020.

Alongside the Shared Rural Network, the Government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, published in April 2023, set out further steps to improve connectivity across the UK, including a new ambition for nationwide coverage of standalone 5G in all populated areas by 2030.

Finally, Simon Fell MP has been appointed as the Government’s Rural Connectivity Champion. His role will be to ensure that rural communities and businesses can access and adopt the connectivity that they need.