Welsh Government, Scheme to Extend High Speed Broadband in Wales

This Scheme is being funded using the £70million clawback fund from the Superfast Cymru broadband deployment scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to subsidise private companies in the telecommunications market sector in the creation of new broadband infrastructure to extend the reach of highspeed broadband across Wales. It is a Scheme of Particular Interest (‘SoPI’).
Our key takeaways from the Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU) report are:
- Ensure to set out clearly the market failure in which your scheme is seeking to remedy and clarify whether the scheme also seeks to address an equity objective.
- When identifying alternative policy options to the scheme, ensure to clearly identify which of these options would not involve a subsidy.
- Although future developments can be difficult to assess not only by public authorities but also by recipients and other market participants, the Assessment should establish the most likely future scenario in the absence of the subsidy for the purposes of the counterfactual assessment.
- Remember that an assessment of a SoPI should identify the product and geographic markets that the subsidy may affect, and provide any relevant evidence in support of this, and assess the impact of the subsidy on domestic competition or investment or international trade or investment. To do this, you could draw on insight gained from past experience and recent market engagement.