FarrPoint Find UK Councils Prioritise Gigabit Broadband, Ignore Data Centres

Consultancy firm FarrPoint has today published their third annual (2025) survey of digital leaders at councils across England, Scotland and Wales. The results reveal that expanding the coverage of gigabit broadband remains the top priority for most local authorities. But on the flip side, only 4% of surveyed councils are developing a dedicated data centre strategy.

The report – FarrPoint Digital Connectivity Survey 2025 (PDF) – found that most respondents chose gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) as their number one priority, while getting 100% of their area covered by at least “superfast” (30Mbps+) connectivity still features as the second-highest priority for councils. After that tends to come 4G and 5G mobile.

Top Digital Priorities for 2025 (Councils)
1. More areas covered by gigabit broadband
2. Ensuring 100% of premises in the area have at least superfast connectivity
3. More areas covered by 4G
4. More areas covered by 5G
5. Encouraging adoption of available digital connectivity and services by residents and businesses
6. Developing new smart places (IoT) projects
7. Ensuring digital connectivity is aligned with net-zero targets

However, despite the new government recently classifying Data Centres (here) as being part of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), only 4% of surveyed councils said they were developing a dedicated data centre strategy for their regions. But 50% of respondents did say they were interested, although they haven’t yet investigated the impact of data centres on their area.

Elsewhere, only 40% of respondents reported having a digital connectivity strategy in place that is less than three years old (rising to 69% if we include those with a strategy that is OVER 3 years old), while 18% don’t have a digital strategy and 13% are still developing one.

Unfortunately, it continues to be the case that most local authorities identified lack of funding from central government (74%) as being one of the main barriers to improving digital connectivity, which was followed by the same proportion (74%) highlighting challenges with local infrastructure deployments. This isn’t too surprising, particularly given that the new Project Gigabit programme has been managed by central government, which is different from past programmes that shopped the problem and its funding out to local authorities.

The survey similarly found that, for 55% of local authorities, such funding is essential for their current level of innovation in digital connectivity. While 34% consider it helpful but not essential, they acknowledge they couldn’t undertake projects such as 5G mobile and FTTP initiatives alone. Only 8% have yet to secure funding, despite actively pursuing it after previous rejections.

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ Over three-quarters (76%) of surveyed local authorities now have a digital champion, reflecting growing recognition of their value in supporting digital connectivity.

➤ The proportion of authorities who have defined net-zero targets and understand the link to digital connectivity is only 13%, and those deferring responsibility to other departments is 8%.

➤ The number of respondents who felt fully informed about digital connectivity coverage in their region is lower than expected at 29%, although no respondents had only limited knowledge (71% considered themselves to be “reasonably informed“).

➤ 80% of local authorities are actively promoting take-up, largely through digital inclusion initiatives like device loans, skills training, and social tariff awareness, benefiting both residents and council engagement. However, 16% have yet to implement such measures due to resource constraints, lack of a clear strategy, and dispersed responsibilities within their councils.

Speaking of adoption, the survey also looked at how local authorities were identifying the barriers to take-up of new services by both residents and businesses. Naturally the vast majority highlighted the lack of network coverage as being a key barrier, followed by affordability, lack of awareness, lack of digital skills, lack of demand stimulation and less than 8% perceived that locals saw no benefit from these services.

Dr Andrew Muir, Chief Executive at FarrPoint, said:

“It was particularly nice to see a spread of survey responses from across the four nations, including increased input from Northern Ireland representatives.

The local involvement will be needed as the continued expansion of 5G takes place and the increased developments around data centres raise pros and cons for local areas, all of which need to be considered. Change and opportunity will continue, with 30 years in telecom consultancy, I can vouch for this personally!

Collaboration between local authorities and connectivity providers can be a challenge as they may not understand each other’s drivers and priorities. We believe delivery could be greatly improved to everyone’s benefit by investing in these relationships and digital champions will be key to this. Hopefully 2025 is the year that this gets appropriately resourced.”

The full survey is worth a read as it offers a unique insight into how local authorities perceive the current state of digital connectivity, its impact and implementation.