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Gov pledges £440m to bring superfast broadband to more homes and businesses

Around 600,000 extra UK homes and businesses will soon be benefitting from access to superfast broadband after the government released more funding to support its rollout scheme.

An extra £440m has been pledged by the Government to provide superfast speeds to some of the remotest areas of the country as part of the next phase of its subsided Broadband Delivery UK project.

According to the Government’s announcement this morning, a combination of efficiency savings and a clawback mechanism whereby more money is invested when people take up superfast broadband, has helped to unlock the nine-figure windfall.

Under the scheme, BT will release an extra £292m for more connections, in addition to £133m it had already allocated to rural regions across the UK.

In addition, the Government said that ‘careful contract management’ had helped to save £150m across the 44 projects that made up the first phase of the rollout, providing a total of £442m additional cash to support the next phase.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: “Our Broadband Delivery UK programme is giving families and businesses in hard-to-reach areas the fast and reliable internet connections which are increasingly at the heart of modern life.

“Strong take-up and robust value-for-money measures mean £440 million will be available for reinvestment where it matters – putting more connections in the ground.

“This will benefit around 600,000 extra premises and is a further sign of our commitment to build a country that works for everyone.”

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