East Midlands to get £13 million boost from local community fibre broadband schemes

The East Midlands is expected to get a multi-million pound boost from an initiative which sees local communities forming partnerships with Openreach to bring high-speed fibre broadband to rural homes and businesses.

A study published today estimates that Openreach’s Community Fibre Partnerships (CFP) programme will be worth £13 million to the region over the next 15 years.

The report, by Regeneris Consulting, highlights the huge business, residential and social benefits provided by the partnerships, which are calculated to be worth, on average, £800,000 to each community.

Across the UK more than 500 communities have already signed up to the CFP programme, of which around 40 are in the East Midlands. They include Coleorton in Leicestershire and Kings Cliffe in Northamptonshire.

The CFP programme enables communities wanting faster speeds, but not included in any fibre broadband roll-out plans, to jointly fund an upgrade to fibre alongside Openreach, the business responsible for Britain’s largest phone and broadband network.