Wales Adopts Rules to Ensure New Build Homes Get Gigabit Broadband

The Welsh Government (WG) has confirmed that new rules will be introduced across wales from 1st July 2025, which broadly follow England’s own updated Building Regulations by requiring housing developers to “ensure all new build houses be equipped with gigabit broadband capability” (some exceptions apply).

Just to recap. At the end of 2024 around 78% of premises in Wales were already within reach of “gigabit-capable broadband” speeds (here), although we also note that around 99% of UK houses constructed these days tend to be covered by a gigabit-capable network (here) – the gap left to solve is no longer quite as significant as it once was. But in terms of the latter, we don’t have any specific figures for Wales.

Nevertheless, Westminster has already updated the old Building Regulations 2010 (Building etc. (Amendment) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2022) for England in 2022 (here and here), which helped to ensure that new build homes are now constructed with support for such connectivity. But the adoption of similar rules for Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland was left up to the devolved governments (Scotland introduced related changes at the start of this year).

The good news is that the Welsh Government has now approved amendments to Part R in Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations for Wales. The Amendment Regulations and Requirements RA1 and RA2 set out the new infrastructure and connectivity requirements for newly erected dwellings with “certain modifications and exemptions“; alongside amended Requirement R1 infrastructure requirements for other in-scope buildings.

Summary of the Key Amendments

• New Regulation 44ZAA requires a person who is erecting a new dwelling to submit to the local authority, prior to commencement of building work, particulars of any connection to a public electronic communications network to be provided for that dwelling, alongside any evidence which supports their reliance on any exemptions in new regulations 44ZB and 44ZC.
• New Regulation 44ZB provides for exemptions from the new requirements, for buildings to be occupied by the Ministry of Defence or armed forces of the Crown or otherwise for purposes connected to national security, as well as those located in areas isolated from public electronic communications networks.
• New Regulation 44ZC(1)-(4) sets out exemptions from the requirement to provide a gigabit-capable connection if doing so exceeds the cost-cap, as follows:
  ○  where gigabit-capable connections cannot be installed within the cost cap of £2,000, a high-speed network connection must be installed, provided it can be secured within the cost cap. 
  ○  where a high speed-connection cannot be installed within the cost cap, a USO-standard connection must be installed, provided it can be secured within the cost cap. 
  ○  where a USO-standard connection cannot be provided within the cost cap, no connection is required.
• New Regulation 44ZC(5) defines the terms “high-speed public electronic communications network” and “USO-standard public electronic communications network”.
• New Regulation 44ZC(6) treats the developer as being able to secure the provision of one of the above connections unless the developer has invited at least two suitable providers (as defined in regulation 44ZC(9) to provide quotes within a 30-day period and those providers have either declined to provide a relevant connection within the cost cap, or not responded to invitations to provide quotes.
• Regulations 44ZC(7) and (8) set out the cost cap of £2,000, and what factors are to be included when making this calculation.
• Regulation 44C now includes the following new definitions: “gigabit-capable electronic communications network”, “gigabit-capable public electronic communications network”, “gigabit-ready physical infrastructure”, and “public electronic communications network”.
• Schedule 1 (requirements) inserts ‘Requirement RA1: Gigabit-ready physical infrastructure, and Requirement RA2: Connection to gigabit-capable network.
• Requirement R1, ‘In-building physical infrastructure’, is amended to exclude from the scope of that requirement any building work to which requirement RA1 applies.

As expected, the changes broadly mirror those already introduced across England, including the same £2,000 cost cap per dwelling to prevent new build developments from running into issues of economic unviability, such as in some rural areas or individual private house builds. In cases where a gigabit-capable connection cannot be provided within the cost cap, then slower 30Mbps+ or 10Mbps+ connections are allowable. But in extreme cases, it’s still possible to build with no broadband link being required, which makes sense in a few very remote areas.

The changes are welcome, but there’s no escaping the fact that they’re arriving a bit too late to the party to have much of an impact. Most property developers and broadband operators have already adapted, following previous rounds of political pressure, which means that there isn’t much of an issue left to be resolved. The phrase “better late than never” comes to mind.

Naturally, changes like this do at least help to support the wider £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which is aiming to help extend gigabit broadband coverage to around 99% of the UK (“nationwide”) by 2030 (currently at 86%+). Ofcom predicts the level of gigabit coverage in Wales will reach around 93-95% by May 2027 (here).