The tax relief is included in a new local government finance bill currently making its way through Parliament.

Currently telecoms networks pay business rates on the fibre infrastructure needed to deliver high quality broadband and mobile connectivity to their customers. The bill proposes giving these companies a tax break for up to five years on the new infrastructure they lay for full fibre broadband.

This new tax relief will not apply to existing infrastructure, as the government says the aim is to create an added incentive to move further and faster to get full fibre broadband services rolled out ahead of the arrival of 5G.

Communities secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘We need to have the best possible digital technology and broadband connections if we’re to create an economy that works for all.

‘The local government finance bill will offer a £60mn boost to deliver ever-faster broadband connections, making UK PLC an ever-stronger competitor on the global stage.’

The move is part of a £1bn package of measures announced at Autumn Statement 2016 which includes a £400m digital infrastructure investment fund, at least matched by private finance, to invest in new fibre networks over the next four years. There is also £740m of funding to encourage the market development of full fibre networks in both urban and rural areas.

Other changes included in the local government finance bill are designed to bring rural rate reliefs into line with those in urban areas – currently, eligible small businesses in rural areas benefit from a 50% discount on their business rates. The bill will double this, bringing it into line with rate reliefs in urban areas.

It also introduces rate reliefs on public toilets. Councils are currently required to charge themselves business rates on the public toilets they are responsible for, and cannot grant themselves any rate reliefs. New legislation will change that, and allow councils to provide rate relief to all public toilets, making it cheaper for councils to keep them open in their areas.