Gov Respond to Lords Remote Working Report and its Call for UK Broadband Investment

The UK Government’s Department for Business & Trade (DBT) has responded to last year’s cross-party Home-based Working Committee report (here) into remote and hybrid working in the UK which, among other things, called for an increase to “long-term investment in digital infrastructure, particularly broadband” to help properly support such working.

The Lords Select Committee report also went on to recommend that the government should develop a long-term plan for delivering improvements to business connectivity, including in rural areas with limited access to digital infrastructure.

The government has now responded to this and the reports other recommendations, albeit largely by highlighting their existing efforts toward improving fixed broadband and mobile network connectivity. For example, they mention Project Gigabit’s aim to help extend gigabit broadband to reach “nationwide” coverage (c.99%) by 2032 (here) and their commitments made under the proposed Statement of Strategic Priorities (here).

The response also touched on the government’s new Mobile Market Review and their plans for relaxing planning rules to support 5G deployments (here). However, the Department did say they will take forward a number of priority actions, including strengthening cross-government research and analysis efforts, and exploring how best to target information and advice to line managers.

In addition, as they move into the next phase of delivering their Plan to Make Work Pay, the government said they will look to establish a more structured, official-led stakeholder group. This group, which will bring together key stakeholders and business leaders, will advise and support implementation, while helping the government drive culture change and shift narratives around flexible working.

Read the Gov’s Full Response
https://www.gov.uk/../government-response-to-the-home-based-working-select-committee-report/