Local authorities in London and the South East are among the bodies which could benefit from £9.5 million in new UK Government funding being announced today (Wednesday 13 August), to turbo-charge grassroots efforts to help the 1.6 million Brits nationwide who can’t access to online world. The money will support the best and smartest ways of tackling digital exclusion, which could include putting on workshops to familiarise people with tech, schemes donating devices like phones and laptops to the digitally excluded, all led by local councils, charities and other bodies working in the heart of their communities.
Figures1 show 12% of adults in London and 14% of adults in the South East lack essential digital skills needed for work, like setting up an email account and sharing files. UK-wide, research suggests that 7.9 million adults across the country lack basic digital skills2, while 1.6 million people live offline altogether3.
Digital exclusion is holding too many people back and tackling it is critical to driving growth, which is at the heart of the government’s Plan for Change. These are people who are locked out from some of the basic opportunities that modern life offers, whether that’s employment opportunities, or facing higher costs for things like home insurance, train travel and food – with people paying up to 25% more than consumers who are online.
The government has today launched the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund to help tackle these issues and get more people online. In England, local government, charities and research organisations can apply for funding worth £25,000 to £500,000 to help boost digital inclusion and skills in their local areas. The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will determine their own arrangements for the distribution of funding to best support local digital inclusion initiatives.
This follows June’s launch of the IT Reuse for Good Charter, where organisations can pledge to donate devices to the digitally excluded.
Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:
“It is unacceptable that in 2025, people across London and the South East simply can’t access the vast opportunities that technology and the online world offers. Digital inclusion is an essential for modern life and work, not just something that’s nice to have, and it forms a critical part of our Plan for Change.
“Making technology widely accessible could be the thing that means a sick patient can speak to a GP remotely, or that helps a young person successfully apply for a job. Through this funding we’re moving further to empower local leaders and groups in London, the South East, and beyond, who are already working tirelessly to get their communities connected and change countless lives for the better.”
The Fund is being directed at local organisations because they are best placed to know how to support the needs of their communities. Where new and innovative ways of tackling digital exclusion are shown to be effective, the hope is that by proving them through this Fund, they can then be rolled out wider across the country.
Launching the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund delivers on a key commitment in the Digital Inclusion Action Plan published earlier this year, which set out this Government’s first actions to tackle digital exclusion so that technology can be harnessed by everyone in the UK, and to help boost growth and raise living standards under the Plan for Change.
Tackling digital exclusion will be crucial to raising living standards across the UK as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, for instance by helping more people apply for jobs online, use the NHS app to book doctor’s appointments, or get advice on government services through tools like GOV.UK Chat.
