Shropshire Council commits extra funding to broadband voucher scheme

Some rural premises in Shropshire will be able to benefit from up to £7,000 of extra funding to access gigabit-capable broadband connections in residential or commercial environments.

With an extra £500,000, Shropshire Council has now made £2.5 million of additional funding available to ‘top-up’ the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme in partnership with the Government.

Gigabit Internet delivers download speeds of up to 1Gbps, the equivalent of 1,000Mbps. The higher your download speed, the faster you can download files and stream smoothly on multiple devices.

Eligible homes and businesses can receive £4,500 from the Government towards accessing a gigabit broadband network. Those premises which are currently unable to access broadband speeds of at least 30Mbps will be prioritised for additional funding of up to £2,500 per premises, funded by Shropshire Council.

Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture and digital, said:-

“I’m delighted to commit this additional investment to help some of our most rural homes and businesses get better broadband connections.

“Over 98% of homes and businesses in Shropshire Council’s district can already access a superfast broadband connection with speeds of 30Mbps.”

“We’re now topping-up the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to target those final premises that can’t access superfast speeds, and where we know that delivering a faster broadband network is likely to be more expensive.

“Improved digital connectivity remains a key priority for us as a council, in our efforts to create a sufficient, accessible and healthy economy for our residents and businesses.”

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Paul Scully said:

“We’ve upgraded hundreds of hard-to-reach areas in Shropshire and thanks to the council’s extra investment in our voucher scheme even more rural premises will feel the benefits of better broadband.

“The scheme is part of our £5 billion Project Gigabit, the biggest broadband roll out in British history delivering upgrades to homes and businesses across the UK that would otherwise have been left behind.”

To qualify for the national Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, groups of two or more residents or businesses must be located in a rural area and be unable to get broadband speeds of 100Mbps.

The scheme encourages collaboration between neighbours and their chosen broadband infrastructure provider to gain access to a gigabit-capable broadband service.

To check availability for a voucher, please use the postcode checker on the following webpage: https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/.