In our January 2021 report, we found that the most difficult to reach areas were not neatly grouped together, and the Department was not yet clear how it would prioritise its interventions to ensure that they are served. As the Department expects that areas 64 Committee of Public Accounts Committee, Improving Broadband, Thirty-fifth Report of Session 2019–21, HC 688, 8 January 2021, para 1 65 Q 13, 15, 16, 19 66 Delivering a gigabit-capable UK: Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy, June 2021, para 3.3 67 Qq 11–3 68 County All-Party Parliamentary Group, Levelling Up Digital Connectivity in Counties, October 2021, p. 5 69 Qq 31–32 70 Q 31 Delivering gigabit-capable broadband 17 it classifies as “urban” will largely be covered by commercial building, its procurement prioritises rural areas with the greatest proportions of premises that are unable to receive superfast broadband speeds (30 Mbps).71 This means that it does not intend to sign contracts for areas including Birmingham and the Black Country, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, Greater London and Newcastle and North Tyneside until the later stages of the procurement process.72 Nevertheless, predominantly urban settings can have some rural areas within them. We queried whether this approach took account of the fact that neighbouring areas within the same region may have very different needs.73 For example, we observed that despite being within the same region Birmingham and the Black Country are likely to have different connectivity requirements.74 This is also the case for Edmonton in Greater London, where there are pockets of very poor service in a largely urban area.75