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East Anglian businesses are asking what has become of the green recovery following the budget
- Credit: Siemens
Regional businesses hoping for a big green recovery boost from the Budget say they have been left underwhelmed.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a new UK Infrastructure Bank to fund green growth in his budget - but East of England companies involved in the sector feel his announcements failed to live up to their hopes.
Lloyd Felton, chief executive of County Broadband - which is installing full-fibre broadband networks across rural parts of the East of England - welcomed the new UK Infrastructure Bank but suspected it would not help in the roll-out of a superfast network across harder-to-reach areas such as those in East Anglia.
Reliable broadband should be seen as a fundamental human right according to a network builder which has put its weight behind a campaign to kickstart the East's economy.
A "Herculean" effort to improve internet connection speeds will see 100 more villages across East Anglia given access to full-fibre broadband - thanks to a £46million investment by Aviva.
BBC News
Published
image captionThere are still places throughout the UK without adequate coverage
The UK will fail to achieve a target of offering gigabit-capable broadband to 85% of the UK by 2025, MPs have warned.
Initially, the government had aimed for nationwide coverage within five years.
But targets were scaled back when it emerged that only 25% of the promised £5bn funding would be available.
The Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the cuts, paired with a lack of effective planning meant the UK could end up playing catch-up to other countries.
The report said there was no genuine belief from within the sector that the government s current goals were possible within its current timeframe.