Brighton and Hove denied the chance to bid for a £100 million grant for superfast broadband

Business leaders and politicians are renewing their promises on broadband expansion in Brighton and Hove. This time they have pledged to continue their push for making Brighton and Hove, a ‘super connected’ city.

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, however, has expressed unwillingness to let the city bid for a £100 million fund for the launch of superfast broadband in the UK’s cities. He pointed out that the city was unsuccessful to meet the threshold of 150,000 homes in the past.
But then he was keen on continuing to work with the city leaders to bring up its reputation as a “technology and culture hub”. Currently, there are 125,000 dwellings in Brighton and Hove.
In the meantime, Hunt’s stance has disappointed the supporters of The Argus’ Let Brighton Bid campaign, who are now are trying to arrange a meeting with the official to find out his plans for the city.
Hunt has been quoted as saying that it was surprising to see the desire for ultrafast broadband in Brighton. More efforts will provided to make the city a technology and culture hub, by including it in the scheme which is limited to the largest cities, he said.
Caroline Lucas, Brighton Pavilion’s Green MP has backed the call for the inclusion of the city in the scheme. She was impressed by the “huge level of support” shown for the campaign and invited the Culture Secretary to go ahead with the plan for making the city an important centre for technology and culture.
Commenting on the plans, Alex Morrison, chairman of Wired Sussex and managing director of digital firm Cogapp expressed his full support to make the Brighton and Hove, a digital media hub. Meanwhile, Hove’s Conservative MP Mike Weatherley stated that he is planning to meet Hunt soon to discuss the proposal in detail