Levelling Up Digital Connectivity in the North East
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In the Government’s outline for Levelling Up the United Kingdom, one of the twelve ‘missions’ concerns digital connectivity. They sate that the UK will have nationwide gigabit-capable broadband and 4G coverage by 2030, as well as 5G coverage for the majority of the population.
This mission is motivated by the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of digital infrastructure, and that digital connectivity has the potential to drive growth and productivity cross the UK, as well as widen job opportunities through remote working. There are significant spatial disparities in the quality of broadband and mobile networks across the UK, with rural areas more likely to experience worse digital connectivity than urban areas.
In this post I summarise the mission’s policy programme and what it could mean for the North East.
Gigabit-capable broadband
In 2020, the UK Government published the National Infrastructure Strategy, committing to providing £5bn in public funding to roll out gigabit broadband to at least 85% of the country by 2025, and subsequently to as close to 100% as possible, working with the private sector. Public investment will target premises that are hardest to reach, and which would otherwise not be provided for by the private sector.
Gigabit coverage has already increased massively over the last couple of years. Across the UK, there was an increase from 10% to over 60% in less than two years. This increase does not exclude the North East, with Gigabit broadband coverage increasing massively from 2% in November 2019 to 66% in January 2022. By 2025, it is forecast to reach 70-80%. With the current speed of growth, it may indeed be possible to reach nationwide gigabit-capable broadband by 2030.
The North East was among the first areas to benefit from Project Gigabit last year, prioritising buildings that had the slowest connections in the local authority areas of County Durham, Darlington, Stockton, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Sunderland, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Tees Valley and parts of Northumberland. The Levelling Up report states that Project Gigabit is still going ahead in Durham, Tyneside, Teeside and Northumberland.
It is also worth mentioning that the Towns Fund, which is investing over £172m across seven towns in the North East, will include a revitalisation of Darlington which will incorporate town centre WiFi.
4G and 5G coverage
The Government has also agreed a £1bn deal with mobile operators to deliver the Shared Rural Network programme. This will see operators collectively increase 4G coverage to 95% by 2025.
There is an opportunity to improve the North East’s 4G coverage greatly. 2021 figures show that the North East’s 4G coverage is lower than 70%, which is lower than every other region in England, as well as Scotland. The report’s figures forecast roughly a 15% increase in coverage Post-Shared Rural Network programme. More work will be needed in the region, then, in order to reach nationwide 4G coverage by 2030.
Meanwhile, regarding 5G, the Government aims for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027. They state that 5G “has the potential to radically change the way people live and make businesses more productive and competitive.”
5G is currently live in some regions across the North East, but often with only with one or two providers.
Since 2017, the Government has provided £200m in funding for 5G Testbeds and Trials, supporting over 200 startups and SMEs across a range of sectors in order to better understand how to use the technology to develop new solutions and services.
In 2022, the Government will publish the Wireless Infrastructure Strategy. This will review how far the private sector will go to deliver wireless infrastructure – including 5G – across the country, and determine whether there are any market failures in places that need to be addressed, and how the Government could tackle these.
Digital Skills
The report points out that the economic benefits of gigabit-capable broadband will only materialise if businesses and workers have the skills to take advantage of improved infrastructure. So, we must ensure that people have sufficient digital skills to reap the benefits and prosperity arising from the digital economy.
In 2020, the UK Government introduced a new digital skills entitlement, giving adults with low or no digital skills in England free access to new digital skills qualifications based on employer-supported national standards. They state that they will continue to work with local leaders to develop Local Digital Skills Partnerships. These collaborative partnerships are now operating in seven regions across England, but none are in the North East.
I would argue that the North East is almost certainly deserving of a Local Digital Skill Partnership. In September of last year, IPPR North produced a report on Addressing Digital Exclusion in North East England. You can read my summary of the report here. The report explained that digital exclusion exists on a spectrum, and is not just about a lack of connectivity. It highlighted that a lack of access to devices, lack of skills and confidence, and lack of inclusive digital design is just as important when considering digital exclusion.
Although it cannot be definitively said how many people in the North East are digitally excluded according to this definition, particularly because there is a lack of data available on digital exclusion at local and regional levels, there is evidence that the North East has higher levels of digital exclusion than the rest of England, particularly in rural areas.
The Government states that it will work with devolved administrations to consider how best to share the insights and evaluation of the programme to help build digital skills capability across the UK. Because digital exclusion is deeply intertwined with other inequalities and deprivation, and the North East has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, we must hope that specific support will be given to these areas to target the specific forms of digital exclusion that they face in order to truly level up the region.
Freya Thompson
Knowledge and Research Executive
Photo by Georgie Cobbs on Unsplash