The Government has announced that new funding will be available to help local and combined authorities to tackle digital exclusion.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle published a new digital inclusion action plan today, designed to ‘help people in Britain reap the benefits of the online world’, with figures showing that 1.6 million people in the UK do not have the devices, connection or skills to get online.
The plan includes funding for local initiatives targeted at people who are most digitally excluded, including the elderly and low-income households.
But the Government was unable to say how much cash would be on offer or how it would be allocated.
The chairman of the Local Government Association’s improvement and innovation board, Abi Brown, said councils wanted to go ‘much further’ to reach socially excluded groups and help them get online.
She added: ‘The digital inclusion action plan recognises that local authorities are key to the delivery of digital inclusion ambitions, and we look forward to helping government empower all areas to support all those who are underserved by the move to a modern digital society.’
