HOMES and businesses in villages to the south of Basingstoke will be the latest to benefit from a superfast broadband programme.

Phase three of the multi-million project will see superfast broadband delivered to an area that stretches from Winslade to Lasham Airfield, as well as either side of the A339, by the end of the year.

The scheme, run by Hampshire County Council and BT, aims to provide quicker internet access for homes and businesses in rural areas.

The latest phase, announced today, will see a total of 11,000 premises from Hampshire benefit.

Councillor Roy Perry, leader of the county council, said: “The roll-out of superfast broadband is fully on-track and I expect at least 95 per cent of homes and businesses in Hampshire to be able to access these services by 2017.

“Coupled with the recent announcement that Hampshire secured £1.2million to explore innovative solutions to take superfast broadband to some of the more remote and hardest to reach places in the county, we hope to see these services being available to even more of Hampshire’s residents.”

Peter Cowen, BT’s regional director, said: “Today’s announcement is another important milestone for a partnership which is making real progress.

“Working with our partners, we are able to bring this game-changing technology to locations where the economics and engineering challenges are that much greater.”

Areas in The Gazette area that have benefited from the scheme so far include Hook, Oakley and North Waltham.