Lancashire bids for £60m of broadband cash

THE new Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Lancashire has submitted a bid for £60m of cash to help develop next generation broadband across the county.

The organisation, which is chaired by Booths’ supermarkets chairman Edwin Booth, has applied for £13m from a pot of £530m which the government is due to allocate by the end of this month. It has also applied for a further £16.5m from the European Regional Development Fund, which is due to be given out later this year.

If successful, the bids would total just under £30m and would need to be matched by a similar of support from the private sector. It hopes the money would allow next-generation broadband to be rolled out across the county by the end of 2014.

Mr Booth said: “Attracting major funding will help to develop a sustainable economy in Lancashire.

“Next-generation broadband could help to transform business by increasing the ability of companies to develop new products and expand into other services.”

The 16 MPs that represent Lancashire constituencies have been contacted to show their support for the bids in Westminster.

Next-generation broadband describes a combination of infrastructure and technology that delivers very high-speed broadband access.