Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm to which BELs the £70 million clawed back from the original Superfast Cymru project has now been allocated in order to fund the Extending High Speed Broadband project?
Funding clawed back from Superfast Cymru was receipted in 2023/24 budget year with £34.505m transferred to General Capital Reserves as part of the Second Supplementary Budget to fund wider Welsh Government priorities. The first call-offs under the new Extending High Speed Broadband framework are anticipated to be launched in 2026. £20M has been allocated to BEL 3860 for Digital Infrastructure capital expenditure, including Extending High Speed Broadband. Infrastructure procurement and deployment typically require a multi-year commitment due to the timescales required to accommodate planning, build and completion before payment is released. Future year funding allocations will be subject to the annual budget setting process and future budget decisions.