LGA responds to NAO broadband roll-out report

“Councils have a vital role to play helping to improve local communities’ connectivity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more communities are reliant on having a fast and reliable broadband connection to support home working, continued education and to keep friends and family in touch.

“To help the Government reach its 2025 target, councils need more funding to support telecommunication providers to deliver improvements on the ground. The Government should use the upcoming Spending Review as an opportunity to empower councils to place a local digital champion in every local area to help facilitate delivery and support providers to install gigabit-capable broadband as quickly as possible.

“A local digital champion could then be a central contact point for government and broadband providers to help problem solve deployment issues in the local area.”