Westminster Hall Debate on Digital exclusion: A debate on digital exclusion

• Digital access and skills are essential to enabling people to fully participate in an increasingly digital society and engage in a 21^st century education and employment.
• Councils want to go further to tackle regional inequalities in broadband infrastructure and accelerate the roll out in hard-to-reach communities. Councils run initiatives to tackle digital exclusion such as digital skills improvement support and refurbish old equipment for donation or lending to residents who lack appropriate devices.
• The LGA is calling on DSIT to coordinate the multiple bodies involved in the Public Switch Telephone Network switchover (digital phone switchover). Coordination and accountability are vital to align communications messaging and ensure sectors and consumers, including the most vulnerable, are protected and prepared for the upgrade process.
• Councils are best placed to understand the digital needs of their areas and ensure that local policy, such as planning and highways regulation, is streamlined to help improve connectivity. It is vital that mobile network operators and the Government work with councils to deliver their ambitious programme.
• We welcome the charter agreed by government and telecoms firms to pause the forced roll out of the Public Switch Telephone Network switchover (digital phone switchover) and protect vulnerable people. However, the charter makes no mention of local authorities and the crucial role they play in supporting vulnerable residents.
• The Government should fully fund a digital champion in every local authority. Local authority digital champions act as a point of contact, helping extend gigabit-capable broadband.

Councils continue to play a leading role in digital connectivity, and this has built up a pool of internal expertise that has helped facilitate both roll-out and take-up. However, with the centralised management of Project Gigabit within Building Digital UK (BDUK), there is a risk this local expertise could be lost. Given the right funding and opportunity to work in partnership with government, councils could play an enhanced role targeting left behind communities, driving demand stimulation and providing digital upskilling.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) Wireless Infrastructure Strategy recognises the value of local government digital champions. The strategy identifies the integral role to the development and implementation of a local Digital Infrastructure Strategy. Digital champions promote the social and economic benefits of improved connectivity to residents and businesses.

We live in an increasingly digital world, with banking, democratic functions, job applications, benefits and other public services increasingly being moved online. Digital skills, equipment and reliable digital connectivity are crucial to enable people to fully participate in society and engage in 21st century education and employment systems.

Councils play an important role tackling digital exclusion. Functions, such as children’s services, adult social care, adult education, business support and libraries, all have contact with people who may be digitally excluded. Councils run initiatives to tackle digital exclusion such as digital skills improvement support and refurbish old equipment for donation or lending to residents who lack appropriate devices. Councils also have well established relationships with local voluntary and community sector organisations who are an effective channel to socially excluded groups.

According to recent LGA research there has been important progress in closing the digital divide in the coverage of superfast and ‘decent’ fixed broadband. However, a new digital divide has emerged in gigabit and full fibre coverage. The top 10% of district/unitary local authority areas enjoy full fibre coverage of over 60%, while the bottom 10% have less than 10% of premises able to access these services. A substantial gap also remains between rural (47%) and urban areas (79%) in terms of gigabit coverage.

Fixed broadband penetration is positively correlated with economic activity and educational attainment. Each 10-percentage point increase in fixed broadband penetration is associated with a 4-percentage point increase in the economic activity rate and about 3 points in the average attainment 8 score at Key Stage 4.

The recent House of Lords Digital Committee report on digital exclusion found the Government does not have a ‘credible strategy’ on tackling digital exclusion and reinforces our own findings that there is little strategic guidance to councils from Government on closing the digital divide. Councils know their communities best and have the responsibilities, relationships, and assets to play a key role in encouraging older, vulnerable, and disadvantaged households to get online.

Concerns remain that rural councils continue to lag more densely populated areas in the roll-out of 5G and wider improvements to digital connectivity. 17 per cent of rural residential premises and 30 per cent of rural commercial premises still do not have access to superfast broadband.

The LGA’s recent report, Rural recognition, recovery, resilience and revitalisation, explores the economic challenges facing rural and coastal areas, with a particular focus on deprivation, and outlines what steps government can take to strengthen the recovery and resilience of these communities within the current context.

With the shift to home and hybrid working, residents in these areas face a particular disadvantage in the labour market. Similarly, businesses who are unable to pivot their working models due to poor connectivity may be at risk. To truly level up communities across the country, Government must commit to continued transparency on contingency measures for those residents who are in deeply rural and hard-to-reach areas.

Analysis from the County Councils Network shows that just 21 per cent of premises in county areas have access to gigabit broadband, compared with London with 70 per cent gigabit coverage, and large towns and cities in the North and the West Midlands with an average of 51 per cent.

The LGA welcomed the Government’s commitment to provide £180 million over the next three years as part of the overall investment for the shared rural network. It is important, however, that in striving to become a world leader in 5G coverage the Government does not lose sight of ensuring the Shared Rural Network delivers high quality 4G coverage for rural communities.

Whilst initiatives like the Shared Rural Network place front and centre commitments to increase coverage across the country, a look at the fine print shows much more limited ambitions. Ofcom’s recent 700Mhz spectrum auction outlined the regulator views ‘good quality” 4G coverage as “single-user download speed of 2 Mbps with a better than 90% probability.’ Its recently published Shared Rural Network coverage methodology sets required coverage at a minimum of -105dbm of signal strength. This would register as a single bar of coverage on an iPhone 7 plus, something which is already out of step with consumer expectation today, let alone in five years’ time.

To date, we have found that there is often a disconnect between the level of coverage mobile network operators claim to provide and the real-life experience of residents. Many councils are reporting increases in dropped calls and outages, especially in rural areas. We are also hearing from councils that the ongoing cost of data and higher levels of unreliability severely reduce the viability of ‘stop gap’ interim solutions. It is also evident 4G solutions may not always be effective in rural areas due to lack of coverage, which further reduces options available to communities.

The Government has decided that the planned transfer of all analogue lines (also called the public switched telephone network or PSTN) to digital internet-based infrastructure by December 2025 should be “Industry-led”. This will see analogue-based products completely phased out by 2025 and replaced with an all-digital network. These new telephone lines run via the internet and therefore users of a landline will need to have a broadband router. 

Many local authorities provide remote monitoring to citizens through Adult Social Care or Housing via Telecare which are currently connected to the analogue PSTN. An estimated 1.8 million people in the UK currently use telecare services. Of these, 1.3 million use alarms in their own homes and 0.5 million in a range of care homes, supported housing and sheltered living arrangements. 

Upgrading, replacing and reconnecting devices to the digital network will be extremely costly and is not limited to Adult Social Care. Council colleagues across IT, transportation, and security are also reporting an indirect impact on our most vulnerable citizens.

In response to the challenges facing vulnerable residents, the LGA has developed a toolkit to help councils to communicate these changes to their residents and a digital switchover hub. The LGA has also produced guidance and recommendations for councils to reduce the risk of scams.

We welcome the recent Charter, agreed by government and telecoms firms, to stop the forced roll out of the switchover in order to protect vulnerable people until adequate protective measures are in place. However, these further commitments from Government and industry make no mention of local authorities and the key role they play in supporting and identifying vulnerable people.

Further work needs to be undertaken to provide a clearer assessment of the costs to councils, communities and businesses arising from this rollout. The LGA continues to call for greater awareness, data sharing, testing and coordination from government, so that the wider public is prepared for the potential impact on homes and businesses, as there are no plans for a national awareness campaign by the Government or Ofcom.

Archie Ratcliffe, Public Affairs and Campaigns Advisor

Email: [email protected]