The Royal Borough of Greenwich launched its strategy today outlining how it intends to become a ‘Smart City’.

The strategy sets out a vision for the borough that consists of creating a modern infrastructure, a high value and high skilled economy, while ensuring a 'smarter' delivery of services to residents.

The council will focus on four key areas to ensure transformational change:

Transforming neighbourhoods and communities: with a 33% increase in population, the radical change in shopping habits and the possibility of autonomous vehicles in urban environments, neighbourhoods will be transformed over the coming years;

Transforming infrastructure: the council will develop a strategy to deliver ultra-fast broadband to all parts of the borough. It will also work with the Digital Built Britain Task Force to develop the council's application of Building Information Modelling in borough developments. And it will also improve understanding of the built environment and how it operates;

Transforming public services: the council will review the structure of services and pilot new innovative approaches for the benefit of citizens and the public purse;

Transforming the Greenwich economy: the council will work to attract forward-looking companies to the borough, which could create new jobs for local people and help sustain and drive the local economy.

Cllr Denise Hyland, leader of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, said: ‘I'm immensely proud of the transformational work that we are doing at the moment. In the face of the rapid increase in the borough's population and in the face of globalization and technological change, we have to invest in the future and face these challenges head on, right now. We have to invest in a modern built environment, in globally competitive connectivity, in the skills of our people, and in the transformation of our own public services to meet the needs of all our citizens, young and old.’

‘The Smart City Strategy,’ he continued, ‘is our blueprint to take Royal Greenwich into the future. This comprehensive approach to delivering a smarter borough is not an option - it is a necessity. There is no alternative.’