Today the spending review talked about since the election has now been delivered setting out how savings will be made in order to reduce the deficit left by the previous Government.

One interesting point is the spending proposed for broadband. £530m has been set aside from both the BBC and digital switch-over under-spend. This is to get the "final third" that the big players say is uneconomical to deploy faster services (or even just basic services) to without subsidy.

Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Herefordshire and the Highlands have been selected as trial areas each getting £10m. The aim is to have this topped up with EU funding which generally doubles the amount.

Word has it that Cumbria was not planned to be one of the trial areas but got in on the action thanks to the help of Rory Stewart MP, specifically the Rheged conference he organised.

For a while now, I have been following what Rory Stewart MP has been doing to get faster broadband in Cumbria since his election, especially in rural areas. The conference held last month at Rheged in Penrith was a big help in getting communities interested in faster services.

Personally, I have been looking at ways to improve access in several villages between Shap and Penrith (where some of my family live) for a while and recently contacted NextGenUs who have nearly finished deploying the first Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) village in the country - Ashby de la Launde in Lincolnshire.

After a few conversations with their managing director Guy Jarvis, I have now decided to work with them to drive demand in Cumbria for future proofed digital services.