Cheshire UK Boosts Value of Gigabit Broadband Rollout Vouchers

The Cheshire East Council has announced that the wider Connecting Cheshire Partnership have committed £2.9m to boost the value of the UK Government’s local Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which offers vouchers to help rural homes and businesses install gigabit-capable internet connections.

The rural-focused GBVS scheme – as managed by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) team – normally offers vouchers worth up to £1,500 for homes or £3,000 for businesses to help them get a gigabit-capable broadband (1000Mbps download) ISP services installed. But the additional funding means that locals will be able to access much bigger vouchers – up to £4,000 per eligible home and up to £7,000 per eligible business.

Rural communities, residents, and businesses that currently can only access a broadband speed of less than 30Mbps will be eligible for top-up funding subsidised by Connecting Cheshire and UK Government, unless the area and premises in question are already part of a committed delivery plan to install gigabit services (e.g. Project Gigabit or commercial deployments).

The higher value of such vouchers means that the scheme can reach into even more rural and remote locations, which the original GBVS scheme might have struggled with due to hefty deployment costs. But at £2.9m its impact will be relatively limited, as it doesn’t take much for a few communities to gobble that up. The larger subsidy scheme under Project Gigabit will hopefully be able to tackle the rest.

Digital Infrastructure Minister, Matt Warman, said:

“More than 1,700 hard-to-reach homes and businesses in Cheshire have been given better broadband connections as part of the government’s £210m voucher scheme, and I welcome today’s news of an extra £2.9m to provide a further boost and level up rural communities.

The government is also rolling out better broadband through our record £5bn Project Gigabit which will make sure everyone can reap the benefits of new internet-fuelled technologies no matter where they live.”

Councillor Nick Mannion said:

“Connecting rural areas across the sub-region to high-speed broadband is vital to improving the rural economy and remains the priority for Connecting Cheshire. This will enable more residents and businesses to access essential online services across multiple devices, simultaneously.

The £2.9m investment into top-up vouchers provides opportunity to our most digitally deprived areas across Cheshire and Warrington, often where the commercial market has failed to deliver service.

We now encourage communities to come together and utilise both the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and Connecting Cheshire top-up funding available to get your community connected.”

The extra funding is being contributed by Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Warrington Borough Council and Halton Borough Council.