THE MP for Eddisbury, Edward Timpson CBE, has welcomed the government's £5 billion Project Gigabit that will see thousands of homes and businesses across the constituency benefit from high-speed broadband.

The project prioritises areas that currently have slow connections, and which would otherwise have been left behind in broadband companies' rollout plans, putting the investment in place to increase their available speeds to more than 1,000 megabits or one gigabit per second.

Eddisbury currently ranks 599th out of 650 constituencies for superfast broadband coverage, and 12 per cent of residents receive downloads of less than 10 megabits per second.

Project Gigabit will also make £110 million available to connect public sector buildings such as GPs' surgeries, schools and libraries in hard-to-reach areas, as well as investing £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which will help cover the installation costs of bringing gigabit connectivity to homes and businesses in rural areas.

Cheshire has benefited from similar projects in the past, and with a range of local fibre projects currently in place, it has one of the fastest improving broadband networks of any county in the UK.

Mr Timpson said, for Eddisbury, delivering faster broadband is an ever more vital and significant infrastructure project.

"Families and businesses across the UK are relying on the internet now more than ever to work, shop and stay in touch with loved ones, so connection speeds have never been more important," he said.

"Improving access to high-speed broadband is one of my top priorities as Eddisbury's MP.

"I meet regularly with the Digital Minister to discuss this challenge, and will continue to lobby hard for Cheshire's inclusion in phase two of Project Gigabit.

"By investing in hard-to-reach areas across the UK, this Conservative Government is creating jobs and spreading wealth across Britain as we level up and build back better."