Cumbria UK Boost Gigabit Broadband Vouchers with Extra GBP2m

The Cumbria County Council (CCC) has released an additional £2m of public investment to help keep the current Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) topped-up, which is designed to help rural homes and businesses to get an ultrafast or gigabit speed internet connection installed.

The existing voucher scheme normally offers up to £3,500 for small businesses or up to £1,500 for residents, but the extra funding means that these values will continue to be boosted to £7,000 for businesses and £3,000 for individual homes in Cumbria. The higher value means that such schemes can help to fund FTTP or similar deployments to some increasingly challenging rural areas.

The top-up funding is effectively a replacement for the former Borderlands top-up, which applied to both Cumbria and Northumberland (here), and was funded via the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal. The Borderlands scheme delivered 41 projects, providing gigabit connectivity to over 1,200 properties in Cumbria so far.

Julia Lopez, UK Digital Infrastructure Minister, said:

“Our £210 million voucher scheme is already helping rural communities in Cumbria get lightning-fast gigabit internet connections and it’s great to see Cumbria County Council providing an extra £2 million to help more people struggling with slow speeds.

“Vouchers are just one way we’re rolling out better broadband speeds through our £5 billion Project Gigabit programme – the biggest broadband upgrade in UK history – which is set to connect up to 60,000 hard-to-reach homes and businesses in Cumbria alone.”

The funding continues to be allocated on a first come basis, and communities are strongly advised to apply as soon as they can to avoid disappointment. But some may be waiting to see the outcome of the Project Gigabit procurement for Cumbria before committing to a voucher project, while others may find that the vouchers aren’t big enough to cover all the cost.