Shropshire Council in GBP1m Boost to Gigabit Broadband Vouchers

The Shropshire County Council (SCC) in England has this week allocated another £1 million (total so far of £2m) to help boost the value of the Government’s local rural gigabit broadband vouchers, which now offers grants worth up to £4,000 (homes) or £7,000 (small businesses) to cover the costs of installing such a network.

The top-up scheme was officially launched last year and, since then, some 36 projects across the council area have been approved for delivery by four different broadband infrastructure suppliers (ISPs). All schemes are led by community representatives who have approached suppliers to use vouchers and build new networks in their villages etc.

However, Shropshire’s voucher scheme will “pause temporarily” in January 2022, while the Building Digital UK team undertakes a review of the Project Gigabit procurement area for the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin areas. Once the review has concluded, in the Spring of 2022, vouchers will become available again in the rural areas where the Government’s larger programme will not reach.

It’s worth noting that the temporary closure of the scheme did disrupt a number of other voucher-based broadband rollout projects when, earlier this year, it occurred in other parts of the country. But one alternative network provider, B4RN, was able to push for a solution to that issue (here).

Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council, said:

“I’m pleased that Shropshire Council is backing its communities by adding extra funding to make it more attractive to broadband suppliers to build networks in our most rural areas.

If we don’t do this then many community-led broadband schemes would be financially unviable, meaning that communities most in need would continue to be stuck in the digital dark ages.

Improving broadband connectivity has always been a priority for Shropshire Council, but it’s become even more important during the pandemic, when greater demands are being placed on broadband networks by users.”

More information can be found on the Connecting Shropshire website.