If your business/commercial area is within West Sussex you could apply for a gap-funding grant of between £10,000 and £25,000 to enable a superfast connection.

£225,000 is being made available as part of a pilot grant project to improve connectivity for groups of businesses in West Sussex that are without access to super-fast broadband and not included in any commercial or publicly-funded rollout.

ABOUT THE GRANT

Business estates or clusters in West Sussex have until 5pm on 15 January 2016 to apply to the new Digital Connectivity Grant Programme.  The programme provides up to 40% of the cost of getting connected with grant funding of between £10k and £25k.

The funding comes from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership Local Growth Deal under their ‘Growth is Digital’ key project. The programme has been developed by Rural West Sussex, Gatwick Diamond, Coastal West Sussex, West Sussex County Council and the South Downs National Park Authority. 

Grant applications will be assessed by the programme panel, who will assess value-for-money, economic impact and deliverability. 

ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?

Eligible groups of business include business parks, trading or industrial estates, farm diversification schemes, clusters of businesses in a common location and single business locations with high economic impact. The programme is not open to residential applicants but clusters of home-based businesses in a common location potentially could apply.

To be eligible, businesses must not be included in the planned delivery of the publicly funded roll out by Better Connected, a partnership of West Sussex County Council, BT and BDUK (the government department responsible for broadband delivery).

WHO CAN SUBMIT AN APPLICATION?

The application can be made by a lead business representing a group of businesses in a common location, or by landowners, land agents, estate managers and facility managers, for example.

WHAT WILL THE GRANT COVER?

The maximum grant intervention is 40% of the total project cost to be used for capital purchases only.  The applicant provides a minimum of 60% of the total cost, which can include revenue costs and must incur the full project costs by 31 December 2016.

Generally the applicant will select the best technology for their location, fibre, wireless and hybrid solutions will be considered, but it must provide certified speeds of a minimum 30Mbps.

WHERE TO FIND OUT MORE

Coast to Capital website http://www.coast2capital.org.uk/helping-business-growth/grant-funding

If you have any questions, please email broadband@southdowns.gov.uk