Over 50 MPs Call on UK Gov to Defend Rural Broadband Funding

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents thousands of landowners (farmers and businesses) across England and Wales, has joined with over 50 MPs to “seek clarity” from the Government over the future of Project Gigabit broadband funding and what proportion of the spend will be going toward rural vs urban areas.

The group, which has written an open letter to the new technology secretary, Peter Kyle MP, appears to be responding to recent reports (here) that suggested the government could be preparing to shift some public funding, which is currently earmarked for the rural-focused £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out programme (c. £2bn of that budget is still unallocated), and using it to help upgrade parts of major towns and cities (e.g. central London).

Just to recap. The previous government, via the executive Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, was already well known to be exploring how the issue of urban slowspots and notspots could be tackled (here). For example, a trial solution was proposed earlier this year (here), which would extend the gigabit broadband voucher scheme to be used in certain urban, as well as rural, areas. The new government has simply continued this work.

The reason for this is that some urban patches, which are typically dotted about like small islands inside major cities and towns, have long become notorious for being left neglected by commercial operators. The problem can be caused by all sorts of challenges (e.g. high build costs, issues with securing wayleave / access and permits or road closures etc.). But competition law often prevents the use of state aid in such areas, which typically leaves vouchers as the only solution.

The answer to how the new government will ultimately approach this could well surface in next week’s budget announcement, but before that the CLA and many MPs are clearly keen to see their viewpoint respected. The new letter is thus calling on the government to be clear about whether the full allocation of £5bn will be retained for Project Gigabit and what proportion, if any, will end up going toward rural vs urban areas. The letter also seeks an assurance that rural areas, specifically those that are not commercially viable for gigabit broadband, will continue to be prioritised.

CLA Statement

The CLA has sprung into action to prevent any change in the aims of Project Gigabit.

The previous government launched Project Gigabit in 2021 with £5bn of funding. The broad aim of the project is to ensure that 85% of the country has full-fibre broadband coverage by 2025 and encourage broadband providers to deliver broadband where it would otherwise be commercially unviable. It’s logical, therefore, to expect the majority of its funding to be focused on rural areas where the need is highest.

There have been reports however that the body overseeing the programme, Building Digital UK, has been exploring plans to use funding to tackle internet ‘not spots’ in urban areas. This would include areas of cities such as London that do not currently have gigabit-capable broadband.

This would be against the original aims of the programme and not address the need to reduce the urban-rural digital divide. The government regulator Ofcom shows that only 49% of rural households can get gigabit-capable broadband. In comparison, 85% of urban households already have access to this.

The CLA’s response

In reaction to this, the CLA has devised a joint letter with the former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Sir John Whittingdale. In the letter, we have called for clarity over the objectives for Project Gigabit. We have also asked for the UK Government to retain the full £5bn intended for the programme and to guarantee that future spend is focused on rural areas.

This letter has received significant interest from the Conservative opposition and garnered more than 50 signatories. This includes the Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Kevin Hollinrake and the former Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden.

The CLA continues to advocate for greater connectivity for all rural communities and works extensively with government departments and the rural connectivity forum.

The previous government’s Project Gigabit programme aimed to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks from 85% coverage today to “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 (here), albeit with a focus on the final 10-20% of hardest-to-reach premises. The new Labour Government have, thus far, appeared to be broadly supportive of this and even pledged to make a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030”.

A government (DSIT) spokesperson said (7th Oct):

“We have been clear that addressing pockets of poor connectivity in all areas of the country is necessary to reach our goal of nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030 and grow the economy. Rural areas remain a priority for us, with over a million rural premises now covered by contracts under Project Gigabit – with many more rural properties set to benefit in future.

We are committed to exploring all avenues to achieve this ambition. No decisions have been made yet.”

In our view, the storm over all this may be significantly overblown (broadband vouchers for urban areas have been done before, albeit with a limited scope), but much will depend upon precisely what sort of changes the government end up making in next week’s budget and how much funding gets allocated to vouchers vs directly subsidised rural builds. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting the CLA’s announcement.