Project Gigabit Delivery Plan – Summer Update
Broadband boost in East Midlands to level up 365,000 rural homes and businesses
● Hard-to-reach premises in East Midlands to benefit from £5 billion government scheme
● Includes Nottinghamshire, West Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire,
and surrounding areas in Warwickshire, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes
● Plans will see hundreds of millions of investment in next-generation networks
Rural homes and businesses across the East Midlands will get next-generation gigabit broadband built to them under a £5 billion plan to level up internet access across the UK.
New details published today from Project Gigabit, a government scheme to upgrade broadband
infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas, reveal that up to 366,000 rural homes and businesses in the
region and surrounding areas are in line to be connected to lightning-fast speeds.
This is in addition to commercial providers’ roll out which is seeing gigabit broadband being deployed
rapidly across the country – from one in ten households in the UK in 2019 to more than two in five
today. The country is also on track for one of the fastest rollouts in Europe and for 60 per cent of all
households to have access to gigabit speeds by the end of this year.
The Project Gigabit programme targets properties that would otherwise have been left behind in
broadband companies’ rollout plans, prioritising those that currently have the slowest connections.
Their available speeds will rocket to more than 1,000 megabits or one gigabit per second – enough to
download a HD movie in less than 30 seconds and lay the foundations for tomorrow’s tech such as
8K-quality video streaming.
It means families no longer having to battle over bandwidth and will give people in rural areas the
freedom to live and work more flexibly with the speed and reliability needed to start and run
businesses.
The areas – including the dates work is due to start, the number of premises and estimated costs – are
as follows:
| Areas | Procurement Start Date | Contract Commencement Date | Number of Premises | Indicative Contract Value |
| Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes | August 2022 | July 2023 | 87,500 | £85m – £144m |
| Derbyshire | August 2022 | July 2023 | 67,300 | £64m – £110m |
| Nottinghamshire and West of Lincolnshire | November 2022 | October 2023 | 93,000 | £90m – £152m |
| Leicestershire and Warwickshire | November 2022 | October 2023 | 118,400 | £114m – £194m |
More areas in the East Midlands are also planned, and more details will be announced in due course.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said:
“Rural communities in the East Midlands will be among the millions across the UK to get
lightning-fast gigabit broadband through the government’s Project Gigabit.
“The £5 billion plan is investing in hard-to-reach areas and drawing in commercial providers
to improve the quality and speed of connections, which is at the heart of our national mission
to level up the regions and build back better.”
Project Gigabit will incentivise network providers to build in areas deemed ‘commercially unviable’.
Areas with the largest proportion of premises identified as hard-to-reach or connected to slow
speeds will be first in line for support.
Project Gigabit will accelerate our recovery from covid, fire up high growth sectors like tech and the
creative industries and level up the country, spreading wealth and creating jobs across the breadth of
Britain.
Cllr Kam Kaur, Portfolio Holder for Economy & Place, Warwickshire County Council, said:
“Warwickshire County Council is delighted to be included in the Project Gigabit programme
and warmly welcome today’s announcement.
“The substantial investment from DCMS clearly builds upon Warwickshire’s digital strategies,
helps promote further digital inclusion for our residents and businesses and provides a
stimulus for economic development in our post covid recovery planning.
“We welcome the partnership working across neighbouring authorities as part of our
continued joint working initiatives. This is good news for Warwickshire and the wider region.”
Cllr Nick Rushton, Leicestershire County Council leader, said:
“We’re committed to helping every resident in Leicestershire access superfast speeds, and
being part of £5 billion plan for Project Gigabit, where some of our most rural communities
are set to benefit, is an absolute triumph.
“During the Covid pandemic, we’ve experienced how access to cutting-edge technology has
been vital. Leicestershire residents and businesses have been thrown a lifeline with online
connectivity, using broadband to maintain social circles and get businesses back on track.”
“Nationally, we’re now in a stage of recovery and with this new programme, thousands of
rural homes and businesses are set to benefit from faster and more reliable broadband, some
of our most isolated communities can prepare to see a huge improvement in the way they
work and live, especially in eastern Leicestershire.
“This programme is a great opportunity for rural enterprises to increase productivity and
grow economically. It will allow the growth, and even the start-up, of businesses with the
support of new and improved trailblazing technology.”
For more information, including policy paper, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/project-gigabit-delivery-plan-summer-update
Notes to editors
Additional information on the table
● In the table published above, some contract lots span across multiple English regions (e.g.
Leicestershire and Warwickshire). Where this has been the case, for public communications
purposes, we have allocated the lot to whichever region has more premises included to form
a complete lot.
● Contract commencement date: The start date of the new commercial activity.
● Number of premises: The number of premises in scope of the procurement and expected to
be uncommercial and require public funding – either as modelled by DCMS or as superseded
following Public Review and Pre-Procurement Market Engagement. This value may change
significantly leading up to commencement of the procurement process
● Indicative contract value: Low – An indicative lower bound on the expected contract value –
determined by applying a relatively low average subsidy per premises passed to the number
of premises expected to be in scope and affordable. High – An indicative upper bound on the
expected contract value – determined by applying a relatively high average subsidy per
premises passed to the number of premises expected to be in scope and affordable