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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure that all households in South Northamptonshire constituency have access to super-fast broadband at speeds greater than 24 Mbps and (b) accelerate the roll-out of ultrafast broadband at speeds greater than 100 Mbps in that constituency.

The Superfast programme met its original objective of delivering at least 24Mbps broadband to 95% of the population in December 2017, and is now pushing beyond 96% with an ambition to reach at least 97% coverage by March 2020.

According to ThinkBroadband, Superfast Coverage (>24mbps) in South Northamptonshire in December 2017 was 91.8%, it is now 95.69%. Superfast programme take-up in Northamptonshire (County Council area) was 46.11% in December 2017, and 58.96% in Mar 2019.

The government has invested heavily in Northamptonshire, with over £9million of central government funding allocated and local bodies’ have also contributed over £11million to the project. Delivery is managed by Superfast Northamptonshire, our local delivery partner.

Last July, the Government published its Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, which set out the Government’s strategy for ensuring that 15 million premises are connected to faster than ultrafast, gigabit capable broadband networks by 2025 with nationwide coverage by 2033. This includes an ‘outside-in’ approach through which the Government will support the deployment of gigabit capable broadband to the least commercial 10% of UK premises, at the same time that the market is deploying to more commercial areas. The first step in this approach is the £200 million Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme, which launched in May 2019, and will connect local hubs in rural areas to gigabit capable broadband, as well as providing gigabit vouchers to small businesses and residents.