The Commons public accounts committee have released a report criticising the government, for allowing BT to operate a near-monopoly, in providing superfast broadband in rural areas.

The report revealed that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport allowed BT to receive £1.2 billion in public funding, after the telecoms giant won all of the available contracts on offer.

The committee has now called on the Department to halt the remaining funding, which stands at £250 million, until efforts are made to introduce competition back into the superfast broadband rollout.

The recommendations come as the opposition questioned the peerage of Ian Livingston in June, who had been the head of BT when the contract where awarded.

In response to the report a BT spokesman commented that it was: mystifying that we are being criticised for accepting onerous terms in exchange for public subsidy – terms which drove others away. The taxpayer is undoubtedly getting value for money".

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