Shropshire (Lot 25) Public Review Closure Notice

Question 1

1. Introduction

Accepted Answer

The Government’s ambition is to deliver nationwide gigabit-capable broadband as soon as possible. We recognise that there is a need for government intervention in the parts of the country that are not commercially viable; this is why the Government has committed £5 billion for the Hardest To Reach parts of the country, ensuring that all areas of the UK can benefit. This will be spent through a package of coordinated and mutually supportive interventions, collectively known as Project Gigabit.

We wish to work collaboratively with industry to maximise efficiency, minimise market distortion and achieve our objectives within a tight time frame. To do this, we first identified the areas that were not commercially viable through the Open Market Review (OMR) and Public Review (PR) stages. This allowed us to understand from suppliers if there were any current or planned investments over the next three years in broadband infrastructure (Next Generation Access broadband, ultrafast and gigabit-capable) in the identified geography. For this Lot, the identified geography lay within Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin region.

The box below shows the order of processes, from OMR to procurement.

OMR
Pubic Review
Determine intervention areas for procurement
Procurement

Through these stages, BDUK classifies premises as eligible/ineligible for subsidy on the basis of their existing or planned qualifying broadband infrastructure. Details on the classification system of White, Grey, Black and Under Review and methodology can be found in section 3.2. ‘BDUK Classifications and methodology for this PR’.

Premises categorised as White by BDUK during Open Market Reviews and Public Reviews (ie eligible for subsidy) are grouped into Intervention Areas (IAs). IAs list those premises that will be targeted for subsidy in any potential procurement to follow this PR. To be clear, not all eligible premises may have been targeted for subsidy. The finalised IA will be issued to the market at the Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage of procurement so that suppliers can bid for subsidy to support delivery to this IA. Further information on the OMR/PR process and how we reach our conclusions can be found in the Subsidy Control Guidance document.

Question 2

2. Outcome of the preceding Open Market Review

Accepted Answer

Preceding the current Public Review stage, BDUK conducted an OMR for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin (Lot 25) from 15 March 2021 to 22 April 2021. This OMR requested information from suppliers regarding current and planned broadband infrastructure within the next three years.

All meaningful responses to the OMR were considered and where necessary utilised to determine eligible premises. Suppliers who responded to the OMR were informed of the classifications applied to the existing and planned infrastructure relevant to their submission.

The key findings of the OMR are presented in the postcode-level map showing eligible premises identified through the OMR for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and a list of eligible postcodes can be found on our website.

Question 3

3. Outcome of the Public Review

Accepted Answer

3.1 Background

The PR for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin (Lot 25) ran from 19 August 2021 to 20 September 2021. During the PR BDUK invited stakeholders (including broadband infrastructure operators, internet service providers, the public, and businesses) to provide feedback regarding which areas were made up of eligible premises.

Furthermore, BDUK carried out market engagement to seek feedback from suppliers about the design of the Intervention Area and Lot design, the Procurement Type (A - Local Supplier, B - Regional Supplier or C - Cross-regional Supplier) and also the capacity of the market to bid for a potential procurement.

The PR stage aimed to validate the outcome of the preceding OMR to ensure that it correctly represented the information provided by suppliers in the course of the OMR.

Suppliers who missed contributing to the preceding OMR, had no definitive plans and / or evidence base on which to substantiate claims at that earlier stage, or had subsequently updated their plans had a final opportunity to notify BDUK before final determinations were made on premises eligibility. All meaningful responses were carefully considered and where necessary utilised to determine eligible premises. BDUK also sought feedback from Shropshire and Telford Councils. The finalised postcode-level map showing eligible premises is shown in Annex A of this Public Review Closure Note.

A finalised list of postcodes showing White, Grey, Black and Under Review postcodes has been published. A list of eligible (White/Under Review)premises is available to suppliers upon request.

The proposed IAs shown in Annex B have been submitted to BDUK’s National Competence Centre (NCC) and obtained approval to proceed. The finalised IAs will be available to bidders at the forthcoming ITT stage.

Changes to the Lot Area

Please note, Lot areas are not fully aligned to Local Authority (LA) boundaries. Specific Lot boundaries (and IAs) may flex during the OMR, Public Review and Pre-Procurement Market Engagement processes to enable an optimum procurement to be put to the market. Since the Public Review closed on 20 September 2021 there have been no amendments to the proposed Lot Boundary Area. The PR outcomes provided below, and shown in Annex A, are consistent with the proposed Lot Boundary Area that is now going to Procurement.

Additional premises to procurement

Following the completion of the PR for Lot 25, it was agreed for c3,700 premises that had been included in the OMR/PR market review process for Lot 42 (Wales) and confirmed as Gigabit Capable ‘White’ to be transferred into the Lot 25 procurement area. All these premises have been confirmed as Gigabit Capable ‘White’ though the addition of these premises did not materially change the scope of the final target Intervention Areas of the procurement - refer to Annex B for the Lot 25 Intervention Areas below.

3.2 BDUK classifications and methodology for this PR

During the PR, BDUK categorised premises as gigabit White, Grey, Black or Under Review (WGBU).

Subsidy control classifications are set out below:

White - indicates premises with no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within 3 years^{[footnote 1]}
Grey - indicates premises where a single qualifying gigabit infrastructure from a single supplier is available or is to be deployed within the coming 3 years^{[footnote 1]}
Black - indicates premises with two or more qualifying gigabit infrastructures from different suppliers being available, or will be deployed within the coming 3 years^{[footnote 1]}
Under Review - indicates premises where suppliers have reported current or planned commercial broadband coverage, but where claimed current gigabit coverage has not been verified, or, in respect of planned build, where evaluators are confident that gigabit infrastructure will be delivered, but some risks to delivery remain, or there are some gaps in evidence

BDUK will only provide subsidy to target premises that have been designated as White. Premises which have been designated as Under Review may be included within the Deferred Scope of a procurement. Where this is the case, a further review will be undertaken to confirm whether they are Grey or White before they are released for build.

In accordance with the OMR/PR processes, supplier data submitted during the OMR and PR has been mapped using a methodology that protects commercially sensitive supplier data. To reflect this sensitivity, we will only release White and Under Review UPRNs.

3.3 Summary of PR findings - premises eligibility

For presentational purposes only, postcode-level and UPRN level mapping has been used to present maps showing eligible premises. (NB we will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White - postcodes are not used to determine intervention areas for subsidy). For this purpose, postcodes have been classified as follows:

A postcode is White if any White premises are present.
A postcode is Under Review if any Under Review premises are present.
A postcode is Black if all premises in the postcode are classified Black.
A postcode is Grey ie all premises are Grey or a mixture of Grey and Black.

A postcode-level map summarising these premise classifications is provided in Annex A. Suppliers - please note that these maps do not show which UPRNs have been determined as White and Under Review.

The outcome of the Public Review is summarised in terms of White, Grey, Black and Under Review postcodes and premises below:

Postcode Classification	Number of Postcodes	Number of Gigabit Black Premises	Number of Gigabit Grey Premises	Number of Gigabit Under Review Premises	Number of Gigabit White Premises
White	8,086	879	22,009	16,486	63,828
Under Review	3,791	428	14,134	41,620	0
Grey	5,296	3,698	83,799	0	0
Black	370	6,937	0	0	0
Total	17,543	11,942	119,942	58,106	63,828

3.4 Forthcoming procurement

During the PR stage for Lot 25, BDUK sought responses from the market and other stakeholders to validate the Subsidy Control map (showing Gigabit White, Grey, Black and Under Review determinations). BDUK also carried out market engagement to seek feedback from suppliers about the design of the proposed Intervention Area and Lot, the Procurement Type (A - Local Supplier, B - Regional Supplier or C - Cross-regional Supplier) and also the capacity of the market to bid for a potential procurement.

The total public funding investment has been based on the final number of premises requiring subsidy. BDUK will confirm a budget drawn from public funding for this area within the forthcoming tender documentation. Details of any restrictions on the use of public subsidy will be explained within the tender documentation.

Indicative funding allocated to this Lot is as follows:

In 25.01 (Total of 7,359 UPRNs) approximately £10,805,000

In 25.02 (Total of 12,278 UPRNs) approximately £24,042,000

The procurement type selected for Lot 25, following engagement with market and other stakeholders, is anticipated to be two Procurement Type A - Local Supplier Contracts. Two premise-level maps detailing these proposed IAs can be found in Annex B.

Shropshire Lot 25 forthcoming procurements will be carried out in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015).

BDUK procurement approaches are designed to address the scale of the individual procurements. Shropshire Lot 25 procurements will be conducted in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

The Authority, BDUK, reserves the right to amend or withdraw the procedure for the competitive sourcing process at any time. Any amendments will be done in line with the Procurement Regulations.

Suppliers acknowledge and accept that by issuing this document (PR Closure Notice) BDUK shall not be bound to progress or conclude any related procurement activity.

Under no circumstances shall the Authority incur any liability in respect of the information contained in this email or any supporting documentation.

Timescales

The following table summarises the indicative timescales for the procurement:

Activity	Date
Procurement start date (SQ launch)	July 2022
Estimated contract award date	April to June 2023

See Project Gigabit procurement timelines for more information.

3.5 Summary of PR findings

There are 63,828 White premises (out of 253,818) where the market does not intend to build, indicating there is a strong commitment from active suppliers in Shropshire to reach a large proportion of premises in the County.
The IAs were designed to address areas outside of where we expect the commercial sector to build to, prioritising footprints where there is an appetite for BDUK to go further, faster.
We contacted all known national and local suppliers to ask them to respond to the OMR and PR. This included working closely with Shropshire Council to ensure active and prospective suppliers were aware of the OMR and PR and could feed in their responses.

Question 4

4. Conclusion

Accepted Answer

A key output for the OMR/PR for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin (Lot 25) is the map showing premises that are eligible for subsidy. Annex A sets this out at a postcode level.

From this map, BDUK developed IAs which were proposed to the market during the PPME phase. Annex B sets these out at a UPRN level.

A full list of White and Under Review UPRNs is available on request to Suppliers via ukgigabit@BDUK.Zendesk.com.

Question 5

5. Annex A – Map indicating locations of eligible premises

Accepted Answer

The below postcode level map indicates areas where those premises eligible for subsidy are located ie White areas. These eligible premises may be included within the IA. Black, Grey and Blue (Under Review) areas indicate where those premises ineligible for Subsidy are located.

Question 6

6. Annex B – Map of Proposed Intervention Areas

Accepted Answer

The two maps below highlight the IAs that were approved following completion of the Pre-Procurement Market Engagement exercise.

Finalised Proposed Intervention Area - 25.01 (Total of 7,359 UPRNs)

Shropshire Pubic Review outcome Intervention Area map 25.01

Finalised Proposed Intervention Area - 25.02 (Total of 12,278 UPRNs)

Shropshire Public Review outcome Intervention Area

Please see section 3 above for information on BDUK’s findings, contextualising how eligible premises were included in the proposed IAs.

The above premise level maps indicate eligible premises that form the proposed IAs. These maps are accompanied by a list of eligible premises which suppliers can request via ukgigabit@BDUK.Zendesk.com.

Those premises which are highlighted in red and blue in the above maps are referred to as the Type A procurements.

Question 7

7. Annex C - Post PR Closure Notice updates - May 2023

Accepted Answer

Everything prior to Annex C within this PR Closure Notice reflects the outcomes of the PR conducted in Shropshire (Lot 25) from 19 August to 20 September 2021, which was published on 8 July 2022.

Section 3.4 of this PR Closure Notice details the procurement type that was originally selected for Shropshire (Lot 25) following previous market engagement. This was initially two type A local supplier contracts (now referred to as Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) and North Shropshire (Lot 25.02).

Since the publication of the original PR Closure Notice in July 2022, the North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) procurement has concluded and been successfully awarded following a transparent, fair and robust procurement process and a live contract is now in place. This procurement utilised data from the PR conducted in 2021 (the relevant map showing the 25.02 type A IA remains valid located within Annex B of this PR Closure Notice). North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) is a £24 million contract signed in April 2023 to provide around 12,000 premises in North Shropshire with access to gigabit-capable broadband. Further details on this can be found here.

For Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) which was launched for ITT at the same time as North Shropshire (Lot 25.02), this procurement did not result in a contract award and a decision has been made to rerun this procurement type A local supplier contract.

This procurement will be based on the same geographical area utilising data from the PR conducted in 2021, supplemented with more recent supplier build information derived from the recent National Rolling Open Market Reviews undertaken by BDUK and utilisation of more recent versions of AddressBase and address filtering (e.g. 37 premises have been added to the IA which were not included in the 1B PR. Two premises were added due to use of updated address filtering methodology and the further 35 premises were introduced by use of later versions of epoch.

Changes to the proposed Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) IA, volumes of premises eligible, IA map, funding allocated and revised timescales for this procurement are detailed below.

The amount of government subsidy allocated has marginally increased, while the number of eligible premises has marginally reduced. BDUK believes this approach will achieve the best possible outcome for residents in Mid West Shropshire; with this revised (Lot 25.01) IA designed in such a way that it avoids disrupting existing commercial plans and is targeting subsidising build to areas where the market is not intending to deliver commercially.

The upcoming Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) procurement will be carried out in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR2015). BDUK procurement approaches are designed to address the scale of the individual procurements. Mid West Shropshire’s (Lot 25.01) procurement will be conducted in a transparent and nondiscriminatory manner.

The Authority, BDUK, reserves the right to amend or withdraw the procedure for the competitive sourcing process at any time. Any amendments will be done in line with the Procurement Regulations.

Suppliers acknowledge and accept that by issuing this document (revised PR Closure Notice) BDUK shall not be bound to progress or conclude any related procurement activity.

Under no circumstances shall the Authority incur any liability in respect of the information contained in this document or any supporting documentation.

The revised budget information will be specified within the forthcoming tender documentation. Details of any restrictions on the use of public subsidy will be explained within the tender documentation. BDUK intends to procure gigabit-capable solutions those capable of achieving a minimum of 1Gbps download speed - for eligible White premises identified and shown in this Annex; to be clear, BDUK has targeted selected White premises for subsidy, and this will be set out in the forthcoming tender documentation.

Once the ITT launches, the tender documentation will be accessible to suppliers via Atamis. If you are unable to access Atamis, please contact the Supplier Mailbox bduksuppliers@dcms.gov.uk.

Indicative funding allocated to the revised Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) type A local supplier contract is shown below:

Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) type A local supplier contract (original versus revised funding and UPRNs)

Original	Original figure	Revised figure
Funding Allocated	£10.8 million	£12 million
Total number of uncommercial premises in IA	7,359	6,089

The following table summarises the revised indicative timescales for the Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) type A local supplier procurement:

Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) type A local supplier contract

Activity	Date
Procurement start date (ITT launch)	July 2022
Original estimated contract award date	April to June 2023
Revised procurement start date (ITT launch)	May 2023
Revised estimated contract award date (subject to change)	December 2023

See BDUK quarterly updates for more information on procurements BDUK intends to run.

Map of Proposed Intervention Area - Revised Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01)

The below map shows the updated eligible premises that form the proposed revised IA for the Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) type A local supplier contract.

Those premises which are highlighted in orange (6,089 premises) are referred to as the Initial Scope premises that will be targeted for subsidy, determined to be eligible (White) as part of BDUK’s monitoring process.

This map is accompanied by a list of UPRNs that fall within the IA, clearly demarcating which premises are within the Initial Scope which suppliers can request via Atamis. If you are unable to access Atamis, please contact the Supplier Mailbox bduksuppliers@dcms.gov.uk.

There may be occasions where credible plans extend beyond a 3-year period, in that case, these may be taken into account. ↩ ↩² ↩³

Shropshire (Lot 25) Public Review Closure Notice

1. Introduction

2. Outcome of the preceding Open Market Review