Would you choose/veto a new house based on the broadband speed it gets? I am starting to wish I had…..

Having moved this summer to a new house in a lovely Cornish village, upon installation we were horrified to discover the lame broadband speed we received.  Whilst just about sufficient at supporting two home offices (VPN based) it is slow, clunky and useless for anything faster than standard email/office use and about an 8th as fast as our previous connection a mile or so down the road.

Having researched other services,we are stuck with the BT service we have as best of a bad bunch, based on our distance from the exchange.  Does anyone know anything we could do to increase our broadband speed without shelling out thousands?