Most of the money, some £292million, will come from funds released by telecoms giant BT after strong take-up in the first phase of a programme to improve connections, as well as £150million of cost savings.
Original subsidies provided to BT to roll out superfast broadband to rural areas included a clawback mechanism if take-up of superfast connections installed by the Broadband Delivery UK project was better than expected.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said 1.5 million homes and businesses had upgraded to faster broadband in areas funded by the £1.7billion project.
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It said that more than 90 per cent of the UK can get superfast broadband, up from 45 per cent in 2010.
But recent research by regulator Ofcom showed that 1.4 million UK homes and offi ces – 5 per cent of properties – still cannot access broadband speeds of more than 10 megabits per second, the speed required to meet a typical household’s digital needs.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: “Our Broadband Delivery UK programme is giving families and businesses in hard-to-reach areas the fast and reliable internet connections which are increasingly at the heart of modern life.
“Strong take-up and robust value-for-money measures mean £440million will be available for reinvestment where it matters, putting more connections in the ground.
“This will benefit around 600,000 extra premises and is a further sign of our commitment to build a country that works for everyone.”
But she pointed out: “Broadband speeds aren’t boosted automatically – it needs people to sign up. Increasing take-up is a winwin. Consumers get a better service and it encourages providers to invest.”
A BT spokesman said: “While more than nine out ten premises can order a fibre service today, our Openreach engineers are still working hard to bring superfast speeds to the country’s remaining not-spots.
“This a huge success story for the UK and shows exactly what can be achieved through close partnerships between the public and private sector.”