NORTH Yorkshire is leading the way in the uptake of a national initiative to get superfast broadband coverage for 95 per cent of the UK's homes and businesses.

The Government’s £1.7 billion rollout of superfast broadband has now reached more than one million UK premises as part of its bid to achieve 95 per cent coverage by 2017.

Superfast North Yorkshire is at the forefront of the delivery programme, delivering more than 10 per cent of the one million homes and businesses, despite only being allocated three per cent of the national Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funding.

Superfast North Yorkshire has been working in partnership with BT to overcome what it has described as "many unforeseen obstacles and difficulties encountered in rolling out broadband in England’s largest rural county".

The rate of adoption of superfast broadband in North Yorkshire is nearly twice that of the national average with take up exceeding 25 per cent in those areas that have been live with fibre broadband for a year.

Bill Murphy, managing director of next generation access for BT, said: "The Superfast North Yorkshire programme is making strong progress, bringing high-speed fibre broadband to some of the most challenging areas.

"The programme shows the power of the public and private sectors working together."

The Superfast North Yorkshire project was the first in the UK to deploy fibre broadband using BDUK and European Union (ERDF) funds following the signing of a £36.4 million contract led by North Yorkshire County Council and BT in July 2012.