Government allocates £114m to 10 cities in bid to deliver on 'superfast' broadband pledge

The UK capital is one of 10 cities to have been granted funding totalling £114.1m by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Department said the money would "help provide businesses with ultrafast broadband (at least 80-100Mbps)" and give those firms access to "high speed wireless internet".

Funding was also provided to Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, as well as to Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle. Leeds and Bradford were allocated £14.4m to split between them following the cities' joint bid for the cash. The cities are required to "provide additional resources" to help ensure that "an extra 230,000 residential and 55,000 business premises as well as high speed wireless to even more" areas are delivered by 2015, DCMS said.

"Fast broadband is essential for growth, and is key to the country's economic future," Culture Secretary Maria Miller said in a statement. "These ten cities have produced ambitious and comprehensive plans, which will turn them into digital leaders, and give their local economies a real boost. The new investment will help put these cities at the centre of the digital stage, competing for jobs and investment with the best in the world."

The 10 cities were on a list of 14 cities, which also included Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham and Sheffield, which were eligible to bid for the "first round of super-connected city funding".

The Government has offered 27 cities the chance to obtain a share of £50m in a "second round" bid for funding. Cities eligible to apply for the funding include Aberdeen, Coventry, Leicester, Swansea and York.

Earlier this month the Government announced that it would remove existing "red tape" that places restrictions on the installation of overhead lines, as well as other "unnecessary bureaucracy in the planning system", in order to help improve the UK's broadband infrastructure. The Government has set the target of the UK boasting the fastest broadband services in Europe by 2015.

At the time DCMS said that telecoms firms would not need the approval of local communities in order to install new overhead broadband lines. It also unveiled plans to ensure that telecoms companies can install "broadband street cabinets" in any location, without the need for local council approval and without construction or design conditions being imposed other than in select circumstances. Under the changes, firms will also be able to install a fibre optics network under or on private land without having to go through a period of protracted negotiations with land owners, DCMS said.

In recent weeks two separate Parliamentary committees have questioned the Government's focus on delivering a faster broadband network.

The Lords Select Committee said in July that the Government should prioritise ensuring that the public had access to a more consistent speed of service and that it should "commit to reducing the digital divide".

Earlier this month the House of Commons' Welsh Affairs Committee said local communities in Wales had lost out because of a lack of broadband infrastructure in some rural areas. The Committee said that the Government should not sacrifice efforts to ensure broadband is available throughout Wales in a bid to provide the fastest broadband networks in Europe across the UK by 2015.