Broadband U-Turn cuts 28,000 Homes and Businesses from Upgrades

8 June 2026

Victoria Collins MP has expressed shock and anger after confirmation that thousands of homes and businesses across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and East Berkshire will no longer receive broadband upgrades promised under the Government’s flagship Project Gigabit programme.

The original contract, awarded by the Government to CityFibre in 2024, was supposed to deliver gigabit-capable fibre broadband to 34,000 hard-to-reach premises across the region. However, Building Digital UK (BDUK) has now confirmed the scheme has been slashed to just 6,000 premises, meaning around 28,000 homes and businesses have been cut from the rollout. This u-turn will now mean less than 18% of the originally promised Broadband upgrade connections will now go ahead under the Government scheme, with more than 82% scrapped.

The Government has also confessed that, despite the contract being awarded in 2024, not one single property or business in her Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency have yet received upgrade coverage because the area was placed in later phases of delivery, phases which have now been abandoned altogether.

Responding to the announcement, Victoria Collins said:

“Residents and businesses will be furious that a government contract announced with huge fanfare in 2024 is now being ripped up before work has even started in many communities. People were promised better broadband and investment, only to discover their areas have quietly been dropped from the scheme altogether.

“Contracts cannot be announced with glossy headlines and then rewritten behind closed doors later. The Government and BDUK must now urgently explain what alternative plans exist and when residents and businesses will finally get the broadband they were promised.

“The Liberal Democrats believe rural and hard-to-reach communities deserve the same digital infrastructure as major towns and cities. We have long campaigned for targeted investment, so communities are not left stuck in digital slow lanes while other areas speed ahead.”