Wide-ranging plans by B&NES Council to improve broadband across the area to support new homes, new jobs, and better connect rural areas to the Internet have been announced.

It is hoped the revolutionised local broadband network of the future will support the aim of growing the value of the local economy by £1 billion by 2029 and increasing creative industry/ ICT employment by 20%.

The Council say the key developments that are either taking place or are being explored are:

• Providing nine out of ten premises in the area access to high speed fibre broadband – and for all premises to have at least two mbps broadband – by the end of 2016 through the Connecting Devon and Somerset consortium. This development is currently on time.

• Opening-up the 22 kilometres or so of fibre network owned by the Council to encourage inward investment by ultrafast broadband companies (300Mbps upwards).

• Working with the private sector to roll-out Wi-Fi, 4G and 3G technologies to shopping centres, sports venues and transport infrastructure – particularly in those areas where the Council owns assets, like street furniture and lamp posts, upon which infrastructure could be placed.

• Promoting greater local innovation across creative, micro-electronics and high-tech manufacturing sectors through a mesh testbed. In other words, an online private network that enables hi-tech businesses and Universities to push the boundaries.

• Understanding how the planning system could be used to encourage developers to ensure that future homes are high-speed broadband ready.

Conservative Councillors have welcomed these proposals, but have said that far more clarity is needed on the plans. They have campaigned for improved broadband in the area for the past two years, and in 2011, managed to force the Liberal Democrat-run authority to reverse a decision not to invest in better rural broadband.

The Lib Dem-led Council has recently come under fire for failing to provide details of which parts of the area are to benefit under the rural broadband programme and which households will be among the 10% who will not be able to receive internet speeds of 24mbps. B&NES Conservative Group Leader, Councillor Tim Warren, said: "We welcome the fact that B&NES is now taking the need to improve local broadband more seriously. There are many positive elements to the Council's plan, but what is desperately needed is more clarity on what areas will benefit and when. Residents in rural areas in particular have been kept in the dark about when they will receive the improved broadband speeds, or whether they will be among the 10% who won't get it at all. The coverage map which has been published is woefully inadequate."

Peter Duppa-Miller, Secretary to the B&NES Local Councils Association, said: "High speed broadband is important in connecting people to their communities. For example, young people who can upload their homework via the web and patients sending in their GP home test results online. It is now really important that the Council pressures CDS to make clear both the timetable for introducing high speed broadband and where any gaps might be in the high speed coverage."