Last year, the Chancellor announced more than £1 billion of
funding to stimulate further and faster roll-out of full
fibre networks, and drive the next generation of mobile
connectivity.
As part of this, Government’s £190 million Local Full Fibre
Networks (LFFN) Challenge Fund was launched to boost
commercial investment in networks across the whole of the
UK.
Successful projects in this third round of funding will
enable gigabit capable connections to key public buildings
and businesses and also encourage broadband providers to
create additional connections to local homes and
businesses.
Minister for Digital, said:
We recently set out our ambition for a nationwide
full-fibre broadband network by 2033, and initiatives
like this will be instrumental in achieving that. We want
to hear from any local authority interested in taking
part, so we can work closely with them on their plans to
help them secure funding.
The final decision on funding will be made by the Local
Full Fibre Networks Investment Panel, who will assess the
proposals, placing particular importance on a number of
areas, including:
- Rural focus: Projects demonstrating the effectiveness
of Local Full Fibre Networks delivery in rural locations
and hard-to-reach areas
- 5G or Barrier Busting: Projects focused on overcoming
obstacles to the commercial roll-out of fibre and 5G
- Public Sector Productivity: Projects targeting
improvements to public sector services, such as enabling
schools to access new cloud based educational tools, or
allowing medical professionals to remotely monitor patient
health
- Market Development: Projects deliberately targeting the
development of the full-fibre market in a particular area,
including incentivising aggregation
Following the successful first two rounds of grant funding,
a new process has been designed to allocate the remaining
£95 million from the Local Full Fibre Networks Challenge
Fund.
There will be no fixed date for formal submissions -
instead, local bodies with an interest in bidding for the
Challenge Fund are invited to submit an informal expression
of interest to the programme. Government officials will
then enter into a dialogue with them to assess their
project and where appropriate help them shape their
approach.
Local bodies are now being invited to submit
an expression of
interest
This programme is part of the government’s expanded £31
billion National Productivity Investment Fund aimed at
improving productivity, which is key to raising living
standards. This fund has already earmarked £740 million
specifically for improving Britain’s digital
infrastructure, ensuring the UK is match-fit for the future
as part of our modern industrial strategy.
