South Yorkshire Planning Rules Help to Spread Gigabit Broadband

The Superfast South Yorkshire project, which represents the broadband connectivity interests of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield in England, has given itself a pat on the back this week after reporting that a change to local planning rules has helped to ensure that 17,000 new build homes are capable of gigabit speeds.

At present around 93% of new build homes in the UK are already being built with support for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology (here), but it wasn’t always like that. The Government are also preparing changes (here) to the existing Building Regulations (2010), which will effectively make it mandatory for property developers to ensure that almost every new home is built with such support.

However, some local authorities, such as those in South Yorkshire, have previously decided not to wait around for new legislation and instead made changes to introduce new planning conditions. The changes were designed to have much the same impact as the forthcoming rule changes – ensuring gigabit-capable infrastructure is installed in new developments across the region.

Since the change was introduced, in 2019, it has already impacted consultations on over 17,000 units (new build homes) across the region, which are now being built with gigabit-capable broadband.

Cllr Tim Cheetham, Barnsley Council, said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us how important digital connectivity is and how much of modern-day life depends on it. SFSY pro-actively ensure that new development sites in South Yorkshire are built with gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband as standard, which is great news for the future residents and businesses and avoids the costly retro-fitting of gigabit-capable full-fibre at a later date.”

However, it could be another few months before we see the UK Government laying legislation for their national changes before parliament, although a response to their recent technical consultation on the subject is due soon.