UK Autumn Budget 2024 to allocate £500m to broadband and mobile UPDATE2

The new Chancellor of the Labor Government, Rachel Reeves MP, today announced her first Budget for Autumn 2024 and confirmed that she will commit to “over £500m of funding next year” for “improving reliable high-speed broadband and mobile communications across our country, including in rural areas“.

To summarize. The previous government had two major investment programs to improve broadband and mobile communications. The first was a £1 billion industry Joint village network (SRN), which aims to strengthen the geographical 4G mobile coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025.

The second was £5 billion Project Gigabit scheme (about £2 billion of which has yet to be used) that has been set up 1 Gbps+ broadband speeds are available to at least 85% of UK premises and it is now aiming to deliver “nationwide» (approximately 99%) coverage by 2030. In addition, they also set a target for “by 2030, all settlements will be covered by an “autonomous” 5G network (5G-plus)” (here).

We have had a change of government since the last budget and the new Labour-led administration has generally continued to support these programs by making “renewed push to realize ambitions of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030” (here). But so far, most of their statements have mostly been attributed to contracts and changes that were already in the works before they came to power (example here, here and here).

An exception was the new push to reform planning laws (here and here), which may or may not be of obvious benefit to digital network developers (details not yet fully disclosed). Suffice it to say, all eyes were on today’s Autumn Budget 2024 to see what changes, if any, the new government might make to telecoms and digital infrastructure.

Rachel Reeves, MP, UK Chancellor, said:

“With more than £500m of funding next year, my hon. the Secretary for Science, Technology and Innovation will continue to drive progress in improving reliable high-speed broadband and mobile coverage across our country, including in rural areas.”

At the time of writing, the official budget documents have yet to be released, meaning we don’t yet have details on what this actually reflects. But on the face of it, this is very similar to the level of spending we would expect to see in the previous funding through the Gigabit project and SRN. However, it is frustrating when vague terms like “fast broadband access“, instead of “gigabit broadband access,” which leaves the gate open to speculation about various performance metrics.

UPDATE 14:06

The Budget document for the fall of 2024 was published, which merely repeats the above statement, saying, with more definiteness, that the Government will: “Investing over £500 million in 2025-2026 for the Gigabit and Shared Rural Network project to support the roll-out of digital infrastructure in under-served parts of the UK, including delivering full gigabit broadband coverage by 2030..”

It is assumed that we will also see a similar amount in the next budget, although it is still unclear whether the new government intends to fully use the entire initial budget allocated to the Gigabit project (before today’s budget there was around £2 billion left to be allocated, and now £1.5 billion after today’s pledge of £500 million).

UPDATE 16:54

We have added a comment from the Association of Internet Service Providers of Great Britain (ISPA) below.

Andrew Kernahan, Head of Public Affairs, ISPA UK, said:

“Broadband deployment has been a success story in the UK in recent years, with gigabit coverage available in 85% of the country and full fiber availability in 70%. Thanks to billions of pounds of private investment from a range of operators in recent years, public investment has nevertheless played a crucial role in accelerating the programme.

We welcome today’s news from the Chancellor that £500 million of public investment will continue to fund underserved areas next year, helping communities experience the transformative benefits of gigabit broadband. Initial funding for Project Gigabit was up to £5 billion, with around £2 billion still to be spent – ​​it is vital that the Government continues to commit to future funding to meet the target of full gigabit broadband coverage by 2030.”