Defra makes £20m available for rural broadband rollout

Defra announces funding to tackle digital divide

Defra is to provide a Rural Community Broadband Fund worth £20m to help bring broadband to hill farmers in rural areas.

The fund is expected to draw on funds from the Rural Development Programme for England (RPDE) as well as money from the £530m ringfenced by the government following the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said that farmers need internet access in the same way that urban businesses do, in order to remain competitive.

"The range of measures announced today will help hill farmers become more competitive and take advantage of new opportunities to grow their businesses," she said.

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt added that the government is determined to get broadband to rural communities by the end of the Parliament.

"This new fund will enable some of the most remote communities in England to receive broadband in their homes and businesses. Remote and rural areas have the most to gain from access to broadband but these are the communities currently missing out," he said.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Corbett, CEO of the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA), praised Defra and rural communities for taking broadband rollout into its own hands.

"Limited access to fast, reliable broadband is one of the biggest problems that many rural areas face," he said. "Local communities have long been setting up their own schemes in the face of apparent indifference from BT and a sometimes patchy response from the public sector. These initiatives have often achieved great results with very little resource and lead the way in thinking about how to create future-proofed next generation broadband solutions that involve the community - a genuine 'Big Society' response to the problem."

However, he added that £20m is a comparatively small amount when compared with the scale of the rural broadband problem, so the investment needs to be carefully focused.

A Defra spokesperson told Computing that further details on how the £20m will be spent will be announced in due course.