Skip to main content
Site logo

Main navigation

  • About Alex
  • News
  • My Plan
  • Local Issues
  • In Parliament
  • In Brentwood and Ongar
  • Contact
Site logo

Two Million Rural Homes and Businesses to Benefit in £5bn Broadband Upgrade

  • Tweet
Monday, 2 August, 2021
  • Local News
Project Gigabit
  • 6,500 homes and businesses across rural parts of Essex are set to be upgraded to lightning-fast gigabit broadband as part of the Government’s Project Gigabit programme.
  • Millions of people in rural England will get access to the fastest broadband speeds on the market as part of a £5 billion plan to level up internet access across the UK.

The Government’s Project Gigabit fund to upgrade digital infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas will accelerate the country’s recovery from COVID-19, fire up high-growth sectors such as tech and the creative industries, put an end to families battling for bandwidth and bring the speed and reliability people need to start and run businesses.

New details published today reveal up to 1,850,000 additional premises across 26 English counties will get access to gigabit speed internet of 1,000 megabits per second - enough to download a HD movie in less than 30 seconds and lay the foundations for next-generation tech such as 8K-quality video streaming.

It brings the current total number of premises in scope for government-funded coverage to 2.2 million, with more still to be announced over the coming months across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This is in addition to the tens of millions of premises that broadband firms are rapidly connecting through their commercial rollout, from one in ten households in 2019 to more than two in five today. The UK is also on track for the fastest rollout in Europe this year and for 60 per cent of all households to have access to gigabit speeds by the end of this year.

The Government is also on track to hit its target of achieving at least 85 per cent gigabit-capable UK coverage by 2025, and ministers are ready to go as fast as broadband companies can manage.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said:

Project Gigabit is our national mission to level up rural areas by giving them the fastest internet speeds on the market.

Millions more rural homes and businesses will now be lifted out of the digital slow lane thanks to our mammoth £5 billion investment and one the quickest rollouts in Europe.

This broadband revolution will create jobs, power up businesses and allow everyone to access vital services at lightning fast speed, helping us build back better from the pandemic."

Almost half a million (480,000) premises in Shropshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Worcestershire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will be among the first to benefit followed by counties including Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Surrey, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

The news follows a raft of Project Gigabit updates benefiting all four UK nations, including £24 million to roll out gigabit broadband in ten local authority areas in Northern Ireland, 234,000 homes and businesses in Wales being confirmed as in scope to receive upgrades through the programme, and £4.5 million to help thousands in central Scotland get next-generation connections.

On top of this, today it is also being confirmed that the Scottish and Welsh governments and 15 English councils have made at least an extra £26 million available in top-ups to the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. The scheme, which is available nationwide, covers the costs of a gigabit connection in areas that are particularly difficult to reach, and the top-ups boost the financial help available.

There are 47,000 homes and businesses now plugged in to gigabit broadband as a result of the scheme, with a further 38,000 in the pipeline and millions of pounds in vouchers still available for people to claim.

Under the record-breaking fund, a cornerstone of the Prime Minister’s plan to build back better, the government is investing in areas left behind by the industry’s roll out plans due to the expense and lack of a commercial incentive to connect them to gigabit capable networks.

The first Project Gigabit contracts announced in March are expected to commence from May next year, with spades hitting the ground soon afterwards. This includes 349,000 premises in Essex, Dorset, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Northumberland, Durham, Tyneside, Teesside and Cornwall.

Many more areas are due for upgrades under the scheme and will be announced later this year, with hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses set to benefit.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said:

The pandemic has seen more services offered online and more businesses and consumers wanting to use online services, in particular from home.

This announcement enabling over 2m homes to have the fastest internet services will make a real difference to those businesses and consumers wanting to maximise the benefits of digital services."

You may also be interested in

Bringing superfast broadband to Brentwood and Ongar

Brentwood and Ongar Broadband Speeds

The post-Covid increase in the number of people working from home has seen an increase in constituents contacting me about broadband speeds and a patchy roll out of superfast fibre to the property infrastructure in some parts of the constituency.

Abridge

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Abridge:

Brentwood

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Brentwood:

Helpful Links to Advice and Support for Consumers and Households

Business, utility companies, housing associations and transport providers are providing fact sheets and advice on what they can do to help you during this difficult time. 

Please see below for the information I have received so far - I will update it as more comes in.

Hutton

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Hutton:

Ingatestone & Mountnessing

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Ingatestone and Fryerning Parish Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Ingatestone & Mountnessing:

Kelvedon Hatch & Doddinghurst

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Kelvedon Hatch Parish Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Kelvedon Hatch & Doddinghurst:

North Weald

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in North Weald:

Ongar and Villages

Useful Links

Epping Forest District Council

Ongar Town Council

Local Councillors

Ongar Neighbourhood Plan

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Ongar and the villages:

Pilgrims Hatch

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Pilgrims Hatch:

Shenfield

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Shenfield:

Warley

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in Warley:

West Horndon

Useful Links

Brentwood Borough Council

Herongate and Ingrave Parish Council

Local Councillors

 

My Work and Announcements

Below you can find out about latest announcements and more about my work in West Horndon:

Alex Burghart MP, Essex Housing and Clllr Louise McKinlay

Raising the Roof on Shenfield's New Library

Tuesday, 5 December, 2023

Shenfield Library’s transformation is coming on apace, with building work reaching a stage for me to be able to visit the site and have a look around last week.

Show only

  • Articles
  • European News
  • Local News
  • Opinions
  • Reports
  • Speeches
  • Speeches in Parliament
  • Westminster News

Alex Burghart Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar

Footer

  • About RSS
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Privacy
  • About Alex Burghart
  • In Brentwood and Ongar
  • In Parliament
ConservativesPromoted by the Brentwood and Ongar Conservative Association on behalf of Alex Burghart, both at 19 Crown Street, Brentwood CM14 4BA
Copyright 2023 Alex Burghart Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar. All rights reserved.
Made in Britain
Powered by Bluetree