The Fastershire project works across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to commission a broadband network where commercial providers will not invest. Capital funding is provided by The County of Herefordshire District Council (“Herefordshire Council”), Gloucestershire County Council and national Government via BDUK. Herefordshire Council is the lead authority. The total percentage of premises with superfast broadband in Herefordshire is currently 91% which is set to increase with contracted delivery.

The decision made by cabinet member on 18th December 2019 contained this following recommendation:

£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.

To deliver on the recommendation, a contract variation is needed which will cover the new premises and the financial contribution from the Fastershire project.

Consultations have taken place with the National Competency Centre (the national authority on state aid who advise BDUK and who provide the state aid approval on which the above decision was dependent). This process has led to a revision of the contractible figures as follows:

• £250k reduction in the public sector subsidy required
• £190k increase in the private sector contribution
• Reduction in the contractible number of premises to 1,718 which include 835 of the 872 premises that do not have a superfast capability and which were the primary target of the original decision.

The difference in superfast premises between 835 now being reached and the 872 in the recommendation is revised deployment design and associated reduced cost of public sector subsidy.

The total premise figure is not a contracted amount but incidental build by Gigaclear as part of their deployment. In the decision of December 2019 that was stated as 5,485 and as part of the redesign stands at 5,348 - this difference is accounted for in that premises having coverage with those premises already reached.