Recommendation 14

In its evidence to us the Local Government Association (LGA) called for additional annual funding of £30 million for digital champions in Local Authorities. The LGA expects digital champions to co-ordinate delivery at a local level and to provide additional capacity, for example, in highways and planning teams to support an accelerated pace of delivery.33 While the Department acknowledged that Local Authorities face significant financial pressures at the moment, not least from dealing with the current pandemic, it declined to say whether it thought the requested funding necessary to retain staff and it could offer no reassurance on what additional funding it is seeking to support them.34 The National Audit Office report stated that in extreme circumstances, a Local Authority may have to fall back to supporting only the legal minimum services it is obliged to provide.35 The Department could not say what assessment it has made of the risk to delivery of the future programme if Local Authorities are faced with this situation.36 Learning lessons from superfast