Issue - meetings

Report of Head of Strategic Planning and the Economy

Purpose of report

This report explains the progress made to date by the ‘Better Broadband for Oxfordshire’ programme, and how Cherwell District Council’s contribution from now until December 2017 will extend the availability of Superfast Broadband to businesses and homes across the district.

Recommendations

The meeting is recommended:

 1.1        To note the financial contribution of £545,000 from the New Homes Bonus being made by the Council to extend the availability of Superfast Broadband to homes and business premises across the district by December 2017.

1.2         To support the investigation of alternative solutions towards extending the availability of Superfast Broadband to all premises as soon as possible through continued work with businesses, communities and partner organisations.

1.3         To consider in due course the most effective use of the remaining £455,000 of new Homes Bonus to address the most hard to connect premises.

Resolved

(1)          That the financial contribution of £545,000 from the New Homes Bonus being made by the Council to extend the availability of Superfast Broadband to homes and business premises across the district by December 2017 be noted.

(2)          That the investigation of alternative solutions towards extending the availability of Superfast Broadband to all premises as soon as possible through continued work with businesses, communities and partner organisations be supported.

(3)          That it be agreed to consider in due course the most effective use of the remaining £455,000 of new Homes Bonus to address the most hard to connect premises.

The Head of Strategic Planning and the Economy submitted a report which explained the progress made to date by the ‘Better Broadband for Oxfordshire’ programme, and how Cherwell District Council’s contribution from now until December 2017 will extend the availability of Superfast Broadband to businesses and homes across the district.

Resolved

(1)          That the financial contribution of £545,000 from the New Homes Bonus being made by the Council to extend the availability of Superfast Broadband to homes and business premises across the district by December 2017 be noted.

(2)          That the investigation of alternative solutions towards extending the availability of Superfast Broadband to all premises as soon as possible through continued work with businesses, communities and partner organisations be supported.

(3)          That it be agreed to consider in due course the most effective use of the remaining £455,000 of new Homes Bonus to address the most hard to connect premises.

Reasons

The Council’s decision to invest £545,000 from Cherwell District Council’s New Homes Bonus Economic Growth reserve will extend Superfast Broadband across the district over the next two years. This is an important contribution as it has attracted further funding from Government (BDUK), SEMLEP and other partners.

The Council’s funding is part of over £35million being invested within Oxfordshire by the end of 2017. The percentage of county homes and businesses able to get superfast fibre broadband will be increased to more than 95 per cent (over 75,000) when combined with earlier phases of the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire programme and BT’s commercial roll-out.

The estimate of additional coverage in Cherwell for phase two of the programme, combining SEMLEP and Cherwell investments, is 3,069 TPP (Total Premises Passed).

The final 5 per cent of premises will be more challenging to connect as they will typically be more isolated and require use of alternative technologies due to the cost of laying fibre optic cable. The Council should therefore maintain its close involvement with the Programme over the next two years, during which time solutions to assist remaining premises can be investigated alongside further initiatives expected from Government.

Alternative options

Option 1: To not contribute to the extension of the Better Broadband for Oxfordshire programme was rejected by the Executive as it was considered important to maximise the availability of Superfast Broadband across the district due to market failure and the availability of match funding from external sources.

Option 2: To invest the full £1 million of Council’s New Homes Bonus in phase two roll-out was rejected because it has the potential to be more effectively used in a third phase to draw additional funding from partners to assist the final 5 per cent of premises.