A £200 million grant offer from the government, part of the Rural Development Programme, will hopefully generate thousands of new jobs and provide support to help rural businesses expand and improve their premises, as well as helping to fund broadband projects.
The current programme for England is expected to create 6,750 new jobs – and already, over 1,400 projects have been agreed upon, expected to generate more than 2,300 positions. Grants will also be used to fund landowners to help investments in rural tourism and improve farm productivity.
This latest round of funding will include £30 million to improve rural broadband, encouraging growth by helping to provide broadband services at speeds of 30Mbps or faster. It will also help supplement the current Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport investment in rural internet services.
The broadband funding will be made available later on this year, with the focus primarily on reservoirs and forestry equipment, open for applications from today (July 31st).
Slow broadband speeds can be incredibly frustrating for businesses working in rural parts of the UK. It can make doing even the simplest of jobs online very difficult – so perhaps use a speed checker to see what your broadband is like and if there’s anything you can do to improve it.
While you wait for the roll-out of superfast broadband in your area, perhaps check your computer settings to make sure they’re optimised for the best connections, keep your browser up to date and invest in a good quality router or modem to help tide you over.
For advice relating to VoIP phone service providers for business, get in touch with us today.