A new report has revealed that lack of high speed internet could be a major barrier to UK rural regeneration. The estimated economic benefit of getting everyone in the UK online is in excess of £22 billion, but almost half (42%) of those living in rural areas are unlikely to receive broadband speeds greater than the Governments minimum target for all homes (2Mbps) and 21% have never accessed the internet.

Over 7 million households are not connected to the internet, and this has caused impediments to business innovation and potential cost savings, which often results in business ‘flight’ to more urbanised areas. As 90% of public services are migrating online and conventional ways of providing services are being withdrawn, the lack of internet prohibits local residents in ‘Not Spot’ areas accessing the full range of social benefits; such as cheaper bills, job opportunities and healthcare diagnostics.

Last month the Government announced a £363 million fund which is being allocated to local councils for investment in high speed broadband access. If the 3.6 million low income, digitally excluded households became digitally included, they could have annual savings of over £1 billion a year from shopping and paying bills online. Furthermore, if the 1.6 million children living in digitally excluded families got online at home, it could boost their total lifetime earnings by over £10 billion as well as developing ICT skills which can result in better paid employment.