Nottingham City Council is urging more local businesses to act fast to benefit from cheaper high-speed broadband.

Since April this year, over 260 businesses in Nottingham have signed up for the Government-funded Connection Voucher scheme which provides vouchers valued up to £3,000 to cover the cost of upgrading to high speed broadband.

The Government is throwing its weight behind a Twitter campaign on 3rd September to promote the voucher scheme in participating cities. A similar campaign in June saw 1,568 tweets sent out by 677 users including the Prime Minister. Businesses which have already upgraded their broadband connections point to the benefits, including:

• Increased productivity for business
• A better customer service
• Future-proofing against new systems and technology.

This comes at a time when almost 95% of Nottingham properties can now access fibre services through existing broadband networks, and new service providers are moving into the city.

Vouchers are available to businesses in the City of Nottingham and also the Nottinghamshire County Council area. The scheme supports small businesses by paying for the set-up costs, to access broadband speeds of greater than 30 Mbps. Businesses are free to choose their own type of service and supplier from a list of over 600 with competitive ongoing tariffs.

The application process is simple and requires the applicant business to obtain a single quote from a supplier registered with the scheme and then apply online at www.connectionvouchers.co.uk

Councillor Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Jobs, Growth and Transport commented: “We know that customer focused businesses rely on great infrastructure to allow them to expand their business. It’s great to see companies in Nottingham benefiting from this funding, especially at a time when we are seeing important infrastructure improvements in areas such as the Creative Quarter.

“We urge all local businesses to access this money and make sure Nottingham business people are claiming their fair share.”

More than 40,000 small and medium businesses (SMEs) across the UK have now benefitted from the scheme, according to Government figures published today. The Government made £40m available in 2015/16 for the scheme, and the vouchers are being issued on a “first come, first served” basis. Funds have not been ring fenced for individual cities, and with more than 1000 applications now being received each week, Government is encouraging all eligible businesses to apply before the available funds are exhausted.