George Osborne set to unveil Urban Broadband Fund recipients

Chancellor George Osborne will unveil the ten cities set to receive state capital to support the rollout of ultra-fast fibre optic broadband in this week's Budget speech.

Speaking at the Institute of Civil Engineering, Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that Mr Osborne will announce the identity of the ten "super-connected" cities, which will receive a share of the £100 million Urban Broadband Fund to improve their broadband infrastructure.

Mr Cameron insisted the project will lead to the creation of "some of the fastest and best-connected cities anywhere in the world".

The money will be spent on subsidising the rollout of up to 100Mbps fibre broadband by BT and Virgin Media in hard-to-reach areas of the winning municipalities.

When the initiative was unveiled last December, Mr Osborne said the four UK capitals are certain to be included among the ten winners, leaving Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester and Sheffield to battle it out for the remaining six places.