London UK Businesses Gobble Lion’s Share of Broadband Vouchers

The Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme has today released a breakdown of regional uptake for their Connection Voucher scheme, which offers grants worth up to £3,000 to help SME businesses get a superfast broadband (30Mbps+) service installed. So far 25,000 vouchers have been taken, with 8,857 being gobbled in London.

The scheme was initially supported by around £100m from the Urban Broadband Fund (“Super-Connected Cities“), which was boosted by another injection of £40m last year and its availability has since been extended to a total of 50 cities (includes many outlying areas that had previously been excluded).

Ed Vaizey, Digital Economy Minister, said:

“The Government’s broadband connection voucher scheme is proving tremendously popular and we are now issuing around 1000 vouchers every week. Businesses need to be properly equipped for all the challenges of the digital world in which we live and I urge all eligible businesses to apply as soon as possible to make sure they don’t miss out on the fantastic offer.”

The grant, in the form of a voucher, is part of the government’s broadband transformation across the nation, helping cities to create and attract new jobs and investment, and making the UK the best place in the world to do business.”

Connection Voucher Cities

Existing cities in which the voucher scheme is already operating:

Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Derry / Londonderry, Edinburgh, Leeds, London , Manchester, Newcastle, Newport, Oxford, Perth, Portsmouth, Salford, York.

New cities added since April 1, 2015:

Bournemouth, Chelmsford, Dundee, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucester, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Leicester, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Preston, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend on Sea, Stirling, Stoke on Trent, Sunderland, Swansea, Swindon, Wolverhampton

A breakdown of the latest uptake figures can be found below and the scheme is officially due to end by March 2016, although at the current rate it may actually run out of funding before the end of 2015; quite a turnaround from last year when low uptake was a widely publicised problem.