HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Brown sets out Multi-Million pound programme to Bridge the Digital Divide [October 2000]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 11 October 2000.

Chancellor Gordon Brown today welcomed a new multi-million pound initiative as an essential step in bridging Britain’s digital divide, and said it would it be the first in a series of measures that will achieve the Government’s aim to put computers and the Internet within the reach of everyone.

The initiative, the details of which will be announced by Education Minister Michael Wills, will wire up the poorest communities, provide computers to every resident who wants one, and offer on-line services and free on-line learning. And one of the UK’s highest unemployment areas will be the first wired up community in a public private partnership to give every household a computer.

The new scheme has three aims:

• To bridge the gap between those with computers and those without, ensuring no-one is left out of the internet revolution;
• To boost opportunities to work and train in the poorest and most deprived communities; and
• To put the UK at the forefront of the IT revolution, as part of meeting the Prime Minister’s pledge to ensure everyone has access to the Internet by 2005.

Speaking at the UK Internet Summit today in London, Mr Brown revealed new and disturbing figures showing that whereas one in two of the richest families are now on the Internet, only one in twenty of the poorest families are linked up.

He outlined a plan to wire up some of Britain’s poorest communities, and offer on-line services and free on-line learning in IT skills.

The first community to benefit will be Kensington in Liverpool, which has high levels of poverty and unemployment three times the national average, together with a range of other problems. It will be wired up in a unique partnership between a range of organisations including ICL and Gardner Systems firms, which will offer free computers to every resident in the pilot area.

9 more communities to benefit from the initiative will be announced at a later date.

Other measures to cross the digital divide include:

• 1,000 learndirect centres by spring 2001 – 600 are open now; and 1,000 ICT learning centres by 2001 – last month the first 616 ICT learning centres were announced.
• Both learndirect and ICT learning centres are part of the ?UK Online? brand – by the end of 2002, the aim is for there to be 6000 UK Online centres across England;
• on-line basic skills training free of charge for the unemployed;
• tax free loans of computers from employers to employees;
• the Foyer Federation, which provides housing and jobs training for out of work young people, is in partnership with ICL and NTL creating 50 UK online centres in Foyers across the country;
• in Brighton, a joint UK online/Big Issue centre will help homeless people to find a job by giving them access to computers and their own email addresses;
• charities in Hampshire are bringing laptop learning to the housebound; and
• testing new forms of provision for rural as well as urban areas – for example a mobile unit driving around rural Dorset.

Gordon Brown said:

“It is the determination to bridge the digital divide that makes us adopt such a innovative approach. Our aim is not just that people can access new technology, but that they also have the skills to make the most of that technology – hence our decision that the UK online centres include both ICT learning centres and learndirect centres, where we will provide a whole new network of computer learning, so that the whole of Britain is equipped for the information age.

The £15 million Computers Within Reach initiative which Education Secretary David Blunkett is leading will provide up to 100,000 recycled computers to low income families. Today, Education Minister Michael Wills is announcing the first wave of 35,000 computers.

In addition, Michael Wills is proposing to wire up some of the country’s most deprived communities, where the digital divide is most apparent.

This project involves a ,10 million investment in 10 innovative pilot schemes to wire up communities – bringing homes on line and linking them to their own community web with a single portal with links to local service. This will help overcome the barriers people may face in accessing employment, education and local services, and it will give many the opportunity, for the first time, to use the Internet.

Today Michael Wills will announce the first pilot in Kensington, Liverpool, an area with unemployment at three times the national rate and few families with computers – but within the pilot area, all homes will be eligible.

And to ensure the pilot works to the advantage of everyone, the first 2000 of the 35,000 computers ready for loan will be made available to the residents of Kensington free of charge.”

Mr Brown continued:

“A high unemployed area will therefore be the first to benefit from the most modern of technology, with not just some, but everyone, equipped for the challenges of the future.  This is only the first of 10 pilots in a project that if successful we will attempt to extend to many more areas which need it.

The principle behind it – that no-one should be excluded from the benefits of the IT revolution, and that the digital divide can be bridged.”