Spreading connectivity during the cost-of-living crisis. Can the UK tackle the digital divide?

Access to digital services is one of the most important factors affecting an individual’s social networking and career prospects. We know that those without digital access are at greater risk of loneliness, career setbacks and poverty, creating a vicious cycle of exclusion. Yet the UK has an entrenched digital divide which has proven difficult to bridge. Some progress had been made in recent years, but the figures remain daunting: last year, 1.5 million homes did not have internet access.

As the UK’s cost-of-living crisis persists, we find ourselves with a digital divide that is at risk of becoming wider and deeper. More people may be forced out of the digital ecosystem as personal finances are squeezed. The proportion of households struggling to afford communications services has doubled to nearly three in ten over the past 18 months, and Vodafone’s research shows that one million families are at risk of falling on the wrong side of the digital divide due to the cost-of-living crisis. The economic damage caused by this worsening exclusion could persist for decades.

In 2019, the government was elected on a manifesto which pledged to narrow this divide. But current economic conditions have put those pledges at risk. As public finances face unprecedented pressure, will the government be able to make good on its promise to tackle the gulf between the haves and have nots when it comes to digital access? And how do we prevent the cost-of-living crisis from entrenching digital exclusion, which will hamper economic growth and marginalise vulnerable individuals?

To answer these questions, The Spectator hosted a boardroom roundtable, chaired by our economics editor Kate Andrews and sponsored by Vodafone. Vodafone is aware of the challenges posed by the digital divide, and is working closely with government, charities and the private sector to develop solutions.

The session brought together a range of experts – from minister of state for digital, culture, media and sport Julia Lopez and then-chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon, to Vodafone’s charity partners who are supporting those affected by the digital divide.

Ahmed Essam, Vodafone’s UK chief executive, opened the roundtable by recognising the broad impact that the cost-of-living crisis and digital divide are having on people’s lives: ‘Connectivity is essential in all of our lives. People on the wrong side of the digital divide will struggle – with their education, with their everyday business, and also, as research shows us, with their savings.’ Research by the company found that the cost of not being connected and missing out on online prices and deals is £286 a month. To support customers, Essam announced Vodafone’s social broadband tariff, the most affordable on the market, which follows its mobile social tariff introduced last year. 

Ben Shimshon of Britain Thinks shared findings from his team’s ‘Cost of Living Diaries’ research. The difficulties of navigating the cost-of-living crisis were new for many: ‘For almost half of the public, this feels unprecedented. They don’t know how to navigate this. It’s the first time in their lives they’ve been through financial pressures like this.’ The strain was predictably greatest for those already facing digital exclusion and for whom access could help with identifying savings, managing spending and accessing financial resources. Yet these people were often reluctant to seek help. ‘Often they don’t think they’ll qualify, or they’ll think that others need it more, or they’ll feel embarrassed.’

Many around the table recognised this picture. There was broad acknowledgement that more could be done to improve access to government support, and to direct those in need to appropriate resources. Lopez said many of these difficulties had been brought to the fore due to Covid: ‘The pandemic underlined the extent to which our lives are moving online and the importance of digital connectivity in relation to that. It’s only going to get more profound as the years go by, because there are going to be more technologies which rely on excellent digital infrastructure. We’re going to have to keep a keen eye on how that digital infrastructure is spread across the country.’

Danni Malone, director of network programmes and innovation at the Trussell Trust, highlighted its findings on the link between the digital divide and financial difficulties: ‘One in four people coming to our food banks has no access to the internet. The majority of other people only have access via a mobile device – they don’t have broadband or WiFi at home.’ She agreed with the findings from Britain Thinks that the digital divide further exacerbates poverty by excluding individuals from accessing tools which can assist with financial planning. More work needs to be done to identify those being excluded and to provide them with much-needed access: ‘Targeting the interventions, targeting the support – that has to be the priority.’

But the group agreed that affordability is just one aspect of the digital divide; access to devices is also crucial. Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, highlighted the impact of Vodafone’s Tech Appeal, for example, which distributes pre-loved devices and donates free SIMs to those in need: ‘The relief these families felt after receiving a device was so tangible because they were no longer excluded and were able to continue their children’s education at home.’

Helen Milner OBE, group chief executive of the Good Things Foundation, also pointed to the positive work being achieved in partnerships with the private sector: ‘We now support more than 500 local Databanks,’ which provide free data to 500,000 people in need through support from partners including Vodafone. The foundation’s programmes had also extended to provide free hardware through their National Device Bank.

While everyone recognised the challenge posed by the complex nature of digital exclusion, there was excitement about the progress that had been made in identifying the challenges and developing initiatives to address them. Essam, in his closing remarks, saw the solution as requiring a broad collaboration across sectors, with its new social tariff being just one of a wide range of necessary initiatives: ‘There is no silver bullet. It takes government, wider industry, and the full ecosystem to collaborate on it.’

Vodafone has been working to tackle the digital divide for some time as part of its everyone.connected campaign. Earlier this month, Vodafone announced that it has donated connectivity to one million people – achieving its target of connecting that amount of people by the end of this year. You can find out more about how it is supporting customers during the cost-of-living crisis here.