Teesdale communities next in line for faster broadband funding

The £6.6m for Teesdale is aimed at offering better connectivity to rural areas

More than 4,000 homes and businesses across Teesdale are to get access to "faster and more reliable" broadband, the government has announced.

The £6.6m initiative is part of Project Gigabit which is aimed at offering rural communities better connectivity.

Construction is due to start in the spring after the contract was awarded to Borderlink, trading as GoFibre.

More than 70% of the UK can access gigabit connections, such as full fibre, but most are in urban areas.

Under former prime minister Boris Johnson's premiership £5bn was pledged to rollout gigabit-speed broadband to every home in Britain by 2025.

However, following a spending review in 2020, the goal was scaled back to a "minimum of 85% coverage" by that date, with only £1.2bn of funding available up until 2024.

In County Durham the project includes smaller towns, villages and hamlets as well premises near to Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland, subject to further survey completion.

Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez said people across rural Teesdale "can soon say goodbye to buffering broadband and hello to lightning-fast speeds".

More than half-a-million homes in rural areas of England are to get access to faster broadband, the government said previously.

GoFibre, which will carry out the work, has an engineering depot in Berwick-Upon-Tweed and is headquartered in Edinburgh.

It is the second Project Gigabit contract to be awarded following one covering North Dorset in August.

Councillor Susan McDonnell, from Durham County Council, said reliable broadband was "integral" to the authority's plans for economic growth.

"It plays a significant role in opening up a wider range of education and employment opportunities and helping communities to connect with each other and thrive," she added.