To approve changes to the council’s existing broadband delivery contracts with Gigaclear to expand their scope in terms of the level of public subsidy and the number of eligible premises that would be reached with full fibre broadband.

Agreeing this change will release an extra £1.8m of existing subsidy to leverage no less than £956k private sector investment and will provide an extra 5,486 premises with full fibre broadband across the two counties of which 872 are currently incapable of accessing superfast broadband.  The timescales relating to the current contracts were previously extended through a cabinet member decision in March 2019.

To date 90% of premises in Herefordshire can access a superfast broadband service, from a starting point of the Fastershire programme of 0.6% premises in 2012.  Fastershire is a partnership between Herefordshire Council (as the lead partner) and Gloucestershire County Council, with capital match funding from national government and other sources.  The programme uses public funding to create a broadband network where commercial providers are not investing, as a way of residents and businesses taking advantage of the digital connectivity.

That:

(a)        £1.8m of additional subsidy is used to extend the scope of the Gigaclear contracts (subject to state aid approval), in order to extend the full fibre broadband network to no less than 5,485 extra premises of which at least 872 premises do not currently receive superfast broadband; and

(b)        The Assistant Director Corporate Support be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the above recommendation.

1.         The council could opt to reject the terms of additional premises at the costed model.  This extension of contract in the parameters of the procurement is an effective way of reaching premises not currently able to access a broadband network.  The terms also mean additional investment by Gigaclear of £956k bringing ultrafast broadband to Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.  By rejecting the terms, this private sector leverage will not be forthcoming and 872 hard to reach premises will not benefit from improved connectivity.

2.         The council could run an additional procurement to reach additional premises.  However, with the National Broadband Scheme now lapsed, it would be unable to do so until 2022/23 which has an impact on procurement of local broadband schemes.  It is also very unlikely that a better value for money proposition would be available via a new procurement exercise based on previous experience.  The recommendation would be based on extension of the current contract so the contract terms would follow through with extended number of premises.