North Yorkshire UK Gets More Funding for Rural Broadband

The North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has been allocated £16.89 million over three years – April 2022 to March 2025 – from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), which they say will be spent on everything from “a lack of broadband coverage to poor rural transport links“.

The SPF was established in the wake of Brexit to replace money that would have otherwise been secured from the European Union (EU), but in order to make use of it the council are required to submit a high-level investment plan for how we intend to spend it. The plan, once approved by the council next week, must be submitted this month and a government response is then expected by September 2022.

We had to delve into the council’s future meeting documents in order to find more information on their proposals (here), but sadly this fails to spell out precisely how much of the funding will actually be going toward rural broadband infrastructure. In fact, the main proposal doesn’t name-drop “broadband” once (even though the press release does), although it does mention that 35% of North Yorkshire has no mobile phone coverage.

However, there are a few vague mentions of “digital infrastructure for community facilities and digital skills“, which has been allocated £750,000 under the related Digital inclusion Fund. But it seems like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see how much of the funding will actually go toward helping “broadband coverage“.

Cllr Carl Les said:

“The aim of this fund is to build people’s pride in their communities and to increase the opportunities available for residents and businesses.

The plan focuses on enabling communities to create the foundations for their own economic development, supporting local businesses to thrive, innovate and grow and helping to reduce the barriers people of any age may face in entering and progressing in work and education.”

End.