The government named four pilot areas last year, but local councils have admitted that they have not yet started work on their broadband projects.

BBC: Rural broadband stalled, says Countryside Alliance

Eventually, other members of the SitePoint community jumped in and started offering cash awards for work on real projects, such as logos and WordPress themes.

FORBES: How Both Crowdsourcing and Competition Sparked 99designs

With the economy remaining sluggish, it had to intervene to get infrastructure projects started and the UK construction industry back to work.

BBC: Business

The only thing that we have postponed is new projects that are permanent work that had not been started when we go into immediate needs funding.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

The government and Transport Scotland have started work with operators, local authorities and regional transport partnerships on a number of demonstrator projects.

BBC: Public transport 'Scottish Oyster Card' announced