Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has earmarked over £500 million of funding next year to improve broadband speed and mobile coverage across the UK, with a focus on rural areas.
In the Autumn budget announcement, Reeves announced the government would allocate £500 million to support Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network and echoing its goal of full gigabit broadband coverage by 2030.
Sachin Agrawal, UK Managing Director at Zoho UK, said: “It is a welcome sight to see the UK government investing £500 million to drive progress in delivering reliable fast broadband and mobile coverage across the UK, including in rural areas. Businesses in rural areas play a vital role in unlocking local economic growth and more effectively distributing wealth across the country, and that requires suitable connectivity.
“The budget is important to enable policies to help solve the growing regional divide. However, businesses also have a large part to play in promoting economic distribution through their strategy and location.
“Businesses moving away from overcrowded urban centres can save significant costs on overheads and can help to facilitate flexible working models that enable staff to stay closer to home. This prevents the need for staff to relocate while offering a more affordable lifestyle with less congestion and can reduce ‘brain-drain’ from those areas, potentially enabling further prosperity.
“Technology plays a central part in creating a seamless experience for employees, whether they are at home or in the office. Tools that both enable real-time communication and collaboration allow team members to simultaneously work efficiently on tasks, and keep staff continuously connected, regardless of location. Unified systems that deliver these tools bring data together and make it accessible to all relevant employees, which can contribute significantly to staff productivity and motivation, aiding business growth. All of this is not possible without reliable connectivity.”
