Shropshire and Herefordshire Moot Own Business Broadband Vouchers

The Herefordshire and Shropshire councils appear to have been so impressed by the Government’s recently ended Connection Voucher scheme (here), which gifted grants of up to £3,000 to help smaller UK businesses get a superfast broadband (30Mbps+) service installed, that they’re mooting a local replacement.

At this stage the details are very thin, but the local authorities for Shropshire, Herefordshire and Telford & Wrekin are all working together on a plan that could see European Funding (ERDF) being used to support new grants that would help small and medium sized businesses (SME) in the area to “access business grade broadband services“.

The local authorities predict that, across the Marches area, up to 6,000 SME premises may eventually fall into the “final 5%” and those are the areas that may not necessarily benefit from the on-going Broadband Delivery UK and largely BT fuelled deployment of superfast broadband services (FTTC/P).

The new grant scheme would thus “aim to replicate the key principles of the recently closed Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme” and in keeping with that the participating local authorities have invited broadband ISPs to attend a joint supplier engagement briefing in Shropshire Council’s Shirehall on Friday 4th March 2016, starting at 11.30am.

Statement from Shropshire County Council

The purpose of this high-level engagement is to check our current understanding of what the market has to offer to assist the councils to deliver a project to address a number of specific broadband gaps in the Marches area. This initial meeting is intended as early market engagement only.

The broadband gaps will ultimately present a number of potential commercial opportunities for interested suppliers.

Naturally some local broadband campaigners, such as Patrick Cosgrove of the ‘Shropshire and Marches Campaign for Better Broadband in Rural Areas’, have welcomed the move as “very sensible“, at least provided it is intended to supplement and not replace funding that could otherwise be used to improve domestic connectivity in remote rural areas. At this point it’s worth noting that many of the smallest businesses involve home workers.

Meanwhile those wishing to attend next month’s supplier-only event are being advised to register the names and positions of their delegates with connecting.shropshire@shropshire.gov.uk .