Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 25 November that their target for the rollout of gigabit broadband to householders in the UK by 2025 has been revised to 85 per cent, when they estimate 100 per cent of households will have such broadband; and what costs will be saved before 2025 as a result of the new target.

The Government remains committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. Our programme for gigabit-capable broadband has made dramatic progress. More than a third of UK premises now have access to gigabit-capable connections, up from nine per cent when the government took office in July 2019. By next year, more than half of all premises will have access. We are working with industry to target a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage by 2025 but will seek to accelerate rollout further to get as close to 100% as possible.

We remain committed to investing £5bn in bringing gigabit coverage to the hardest to reach areas and will continue to work with suppliers to accelerate this investment.