Red tape stops broadband from making a connection in region

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) set up a £20m fund to assist projects in rural areas, targeting the 10 per cent of households not covered by the Government’s flagship Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) initiative.

Applications for the Defra scheme must be strictly match-funded by the private sector, with guidance notes expressly forbidding other public funds to be used for this, such as from the National Lottery, local authorities, or European development funding.

A report by East Riding Council on broadband provision explained the borough’s failure to take advantage of the scheme. It said: “No projects in the East Riding have expressed an interest in this funding. This is due to the complexity of the application process and the match funding requirements.”

However, Defra said it was not aware of any problems and that applications for the first round of funding had been oversubscribed. It has no plans to change the criteria and will soon be inviting new applications, a spokeswoman said.

She added: “By securing match funding from the private sector, and targeting the remotest rural areas, the Rural Community Broadband Fund is helping us to deliver the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015.

“Over eighty communities have already applied for funding and a third round is due to open in March. All applicants receive ongoing support from Defra teams to take them through the process.”

Mike Jackson, corporate IT manager at the council, said he did not think the East Riding was alone in missing out on the funding.

He said: “Our experience was it was complicated and that in the East Riding and other areas people struggled to apply for that funding.

“I’d be interested to know how much they have given out because my understanding is they have only been able to allocate about £4m of that funding.

“That’s why we are concentrating on the BDUK funding and the procurement process because we think that’s got more chance of success.”

He added: “If I thought it was unique to the East Riding I’d be worried but it’s common across the country.”

The BDUK programme aims to deliver broadband in areas not provided for by the private sector.

Its national procurement framework was released in July last year and the council is now responsible for implementing the scheme in the East Riding, an area of 160,506 households.

A provisional allocation of £8.5m has been awarded to the Humber region, with £5.57m going to the East Riding. This must also be match-funded, although the council, which had its local broadband plan approved by BDUK in June 2012, is hopeful this can be sourced from the European Regional Development Fund.

This pot of about £11m will be on the table when the council begins its procurement process to find a private sector partner to deliver the key element of the plan; the installation of the infrastructure.

The council will complete an open market review of broadband suppliers next month and should begin inviting tenders in April.

Mr Jackson said: “We will be asking those suppliers to give us a price to deliver that wholesale infrastructure that will cover the majority of the East Riding.”

The aim is to provide a reliable broadband service of at least 2Mbps to all properties in the East Riding, with 90 per cent having a superfast connection of at least 24Mbps.

The Government plans to have the “best broadband in Europe” by 2015.

However, it is thought up to 17 million people in the UK still do not use computers.