Recommendation 9

The Department describes the £5 billion it has budgeted for its gigabit programme as ‘critical’. It said that it was continuing as if the programme would gain approval from HM Treasury and expected the funding to be confirmed at the forthcoming spending review.19 We asked whether the spending review was a risk for the programme and the Department acknowledged that the outcome of the spending review was not yet clear but told us it did not expect there to be any change in the government’s commitment to investing in 8 HM Treasury, Spending Review 2020, CP 330, November 2020 9 Spending Review 2020, paras 3.5 & 6.86; table 6.22 10 Spending Review 2020, table C.6 note 2 11 HM Treasury, National Infrastructure Strategy, CP 329, November 2020 12 National Infrastructure Strategy 2020, p. 31 13 Q 40 14 Qq 54–57, 117 15 National Infrastructure Strategy 2020, p. 31 16 C&AG’s Report para 24, recommendation f 17 Qq 41–45, 111–114 18 Qq 60–66, 115–125 19 Qq 52–53, 74 10 Improving Broadband gigabit.20 Since we took oral evidence, the Department has received a four-year settlement totalling less than one quarter of the £5 billion it says it needs to reach most of the final 20% of premises.21 Progress in tackling barriers