Consultation outcome

Oxfordshire and West Berkshire Public Review Closure Notice

Updated 24 March 2023

New procurement to extend coverage of gigabit-capable broadband across the Oxfordshire region.

1. Introduction

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 investment 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 the Oxfordshire and West Berkshire regions.

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

1. OMR

2. Public Review

3. Determine intervention areas for procurement

4. 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 OMRs and PRs (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 IAs 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 these IAs.

Further information on the OMR/PR process and how we reach our conclusions can be found in the Subsidy Control Guidance document.

2. Outcome of the preceding Open Market Review

Preceding the current PR stage, BDUK conducted an OMR for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) from 12 August to 13 September 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 used 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 Oxfordshire and West Berkshire and a list of eligible postcodes can be found on our website.

3. Outcome of the Public Review

3.1 Background

The PR for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13)  ran from 4 February to 4 March 2022. 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 IA 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 over 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 used to determine eligible premises. BDUK also sought feedback from Oxfordshire and West Berkshire County Councils. The finalised postcode-level map showing eligible premises is shown in Annex A of this PR Closure Notice. See postcode-level map.

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

The proposed IAs shown in Annex B have been submitted to BDUK’s National Competence Centre 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  boundaries. Specific Lot boundaries (and IAs) may flex during the OMR, PR and Pre-Procurement Market Engagement (PPME) processes to enable an optimum procurement to be put to the market.

Since the PR closed on 4 March 2022 there have been changes made to the proposed Lot Boundary Area. Please note, the PR outcomes provided below, and shown in Annex A, include these changes and so are consistent with the proposed Lot Boundary Area shown in this document.

To be clear, the changes made following the PR closure to the Lot Boundary Area are as follows:

• Following soft market testing exercises conducted in July 2022 with suppliers, BDUK established that there was no interest from the market in responding to our originally proposed regional procurement in the Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) Boundary Area

• BDUK therefore took the decision to defer the launch of this originally proposed regional procurement in the Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) Boundary Area and opted to review other alternatives available to provide gigabit coverage to these areas

• Based on this supplier feedback, BDUK proceeded to redesign the original regional procurement IA and instead propose several smaller local supplier contracts across the Lot consisting of South Oxfordshire (13.01), North Oxfordshire (13.02) and West Berkshire (13.03) and conducted a PPME exercise in August 2022

• In the first instance, positive feedback was received from the market regarding the 13.01 local supplier contract in South Oxfordshire, which was subsequently slightly expanded North of Oxfordshire and West into Buckinghamshire

• As such, the 13.02 local supplier contract in North Oxfordshire was slightly reduced in size, however still includes premises located within Buckinghamshire. Clear interest for this IA was also expressed

• There was little market interest regarding the proposed 13.03 local supplier contract in West Berkshire, as such the decision was made to not proceed with this option; but to instead facilitate the expanded scope of the regional supplier contract within Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and East of Berkshire (Lot 26). This resulted in the expansion of Lot 26 to include most of Berkshire including the unitary authority of West Berkshire which was previously part of the Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) Boundary Area

• Subsequently, the remaining area of West Berkshire not added into Lot 26 has been identified as an IA for potential inclusion in the initial call off exercise for the cross-regional framework contract. See Type C Post Public review - Closure Notice updates

• The reasoning for these changes highlighted above and the decision to proceed with two local supplier contracts in Oxfordshire were largely due to limited market interest in our initial proposed regional procurement area based on market feedback provided to BDUK. This approach is in line with our wider strategy of focussing on smaller procurements where no market interest is indicated

3.2 BDUK Classifications and methodology for this PR

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

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 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs).

3.3 Summary of PR findings - premises eligibility

For presentational purposes only, postcode-level has been used to present the map showing eligible premises (NB we will only subsidise build to premises which have been designated as White - postcodes are not used to determine IAs for subsidy).

For this purpose, postcodes have been classified as follows:

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

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

The outcome of the PR 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	11,162	1,183	75,201	23,703	83,333
Under Review	6,734	5,822	42,774	75,377	0
Grey	10,875	11,294	150,870	0	0
Black	918	14,448	0	0	0
Total	29,689	32,747	268,845	99,080	83,333

3.4 Forthcoming procurements

During the PR stage for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13), BDUK sought responses from the market and other stakeholders to validate the Annex A 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 IA 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 South Oxfordshire 13.01 (Type A) - (Total 6,554 UPRNs) approximately £17,042,729

• In North Oxfordshire 13.02 (Type A) - (Total 4,909 UPRNs) approximately £11,241,545

The procurement type selected for Oxfordshire (Lot 13) following engagement with the market and other stakeholders, is anticipated to be a two type A local supplier contracts. A premises-level map detailing the proposed type A IAs can be found in Annex B.

There is no Deferred Scope included within the local supplier contracts which only contain premises that are included in the Initial Scope where the supplier should build as quickly as possible; local supplier procurements will never include Under Review premises in their scope.

Oxfordshire’s (Lot 13) 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. Oxfordshire’s (Lot 13) 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 Closure Notice or supporting documentation.

Timescales

The following table summarises the indicative timescales for the procurements:

Activity	Date
Procurements start date (SQ Launch)	March  2023
Estimated contract award date	August to September 2023

See Project Gigabit procurement timelines for more information.

3.5 Summary of PR findings

• There are 83,333 White premises (out of 484,005) where the market does not intend to build, indicating there is a strong commitment from active suppliers in Oxfordshire to reach a large proportion of premises in the county

• The design of the IAs and the decision to with two local procurement methods will 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 Oxfordshire and West Berkshire County Councils to ensure active and prospective suppliers were aware of the OMR and PR and could feed in their responses

4. Conclusion

A key output for the OMR/PR for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) is the map showing premises that are eligible for subsidy.

From this map, BDUK developed the IAs which were proposed to the market during the PPME phase.  Annex B sets out the two draft type A IA maps at UPRN level.

This identifies the areas where premises are eligible for subsidy. A full list of White and Under Review UPRNs is available on request to suppliers via ukgigabit@BDUK.Zendesk.com.

5. Annex A – Map indicating locations of eligible premises

The postcode level map below indicates areas where those premises eligible for subsidy are located ie White areas. These eligible premises may be included within the IAs.

Black, Grey and Blue (Under Review) areas indicate where those premises ineligible for subsidy are located.

Oxfordshire and West Berkshire (Lot 13) postcode level map level map (showing subsidy control classifications at a postcode level)

6. Annex B – Map of Proposed Intervention Areas

The map below highlights the two Oxfordshire IAs that was approved following completion of the PPME exercise.

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

The above premises level map indicates eligible premises that form the proposed type A IAs.

Those premises which are highlighted in blue (6,554 premises) are referred to as the Initial Scope premises that will be targeted for subsidy as part of the South Oxfordshire 13.01 procurement.

Those premises which are highlighted in green (4,909 premises) are referred to as the Initial Scope premises that will be targeted for subsidy as part of the North Oxfordshire 13.02 procurement.

This map is accompanied by a list of UPRNs that fall within the two IAs, clearly demarcating which premises are within the Initial Scope which suppliers can request via gis-procurements@dcms.gov.uk.

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