Warwickshire County Council, along with Solihull and Coventry Councils have been allocated £4.07m by Government to help improve broadband connectivity. That amount has to be match-funded by the local authorities, and the private sector are expected to invest a considerably larger amount to ensure that all properties achieve speeds of at least 2Mbps and 90% of properties achieve at least 24Mbps by the end of 2015.

Faster broadband will facilitate a step-change in all our lives, including working from home; the provision of health and care facilities to help people stay in their own homes for longer; business benefits such as less travelling and cloud computing; and many, many more technologies, which just a few years ago were unthinkable, but, which are available now – providing you have a fast enough connection.

In order to encourage the private sector to invest, we need to show that they will get a return on their money and that people will actually use the service, and to do that we have set up two questionnaires, one for businesses and one for residential. If you work from home please complete both – just because a building doesn’t have a sign over the door doesn’t mean that there is no business activity inside! The survey can be found at www.cswbroadband.org.uk.

We are also looking to recruit local Champions who will be able to promote the project within their own villages and to encourage others to sign up (resources will be provided). If you would be interested in becoming a Champion or have any other queries about the project, please email broadband@warwickshire.gov.uk