Rural net speeds ‘stuck’

RURAL areas may be stuck with slow broadband for years to come due to official failures, say MPs.

The Public Accounts Committee blasted the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for reneging on a 2019 Tory election pledge to achieve gigabit-speed broadband everywhere by 2025.

This target was revised downwards in November with a new aim of gigabit speed covering at least 85 per cent of the country.

Committee head Meg Hillier MP said the promises were ‘slipping’ due to a ‘litany of planning and implementation failures’.

But a DCMS spokesman said the report was inaccurate. One in three households now had gigabit speed and Britain was rolling it out faster than comparable nations.