Gigabit broadband a priority for local authority leaders

The rollout of gigabit broadband remains the top priority for local authority digital leaders for the second year running, finds FarrPoint’s annual survey.

Getting wider coverage was the number one priority for 47% of respondents with 30% placing it as second.

Farrpoint found that 51% of responding councils have an up-to-date digital connectivity strategy (Jan 2023:43%), but around 11% still have no digital connectivity strategy.

Conversely, no leaders picked 5G as their top priority for 2024.

For the second year running, aligning digital connectivity to net zero targets was ranked as the lowest priority by respondents.

There was a slight increase (from 2% to 6%) in respondents who said net zero was ‘not important’ to the digital department.

FarrPoint CEO Dr. Andrew Muir said: “It was clear from the responses that many local authorities are under significant financial pressure, which is, at times, leading to a reduced focus on supporting the digital connectivity rollout and take-up of services.

“It was disappointing to see that local issues, such as the planning process and permits, were seen as this year’s biggest barrier to improving digital connectivity. I’d encourage councils to work together with other public bodies, central government and telecoms operators to tackle these challenges, because they are definitely surmountable.”