New digital landscape

IT’S fair to say that the UK is currently at an economic crossroad. What comes next is unclear, but one thing is a safe bet: our future economic prosperity will require ingenuity and resourcefulness across the board.

And at the top of the agenda, particularly when it comes to bolstering the South West’s long-term economic future, is transforming its digital landscape.

Based on the current lay of the land, the South West faces a particular challenge in preventing talent from being lost outside the region.

We’re in a golden age for young entrepreneurship, but while our regional communities nurture these entrepreneurs in their formative years, rarely do they benefit from the fruits of their labour.

Many young professionals are choosing more economical and increasingly vibrant cities such as Manchester, or, thanks to hybrid working, employment with London-based companies with their vastly higher salary opportunities whilst still living in the South West to enjoy its way of life.

South West businesses remain inhibited. The problem is that today’s fastestgrowing businesses are digitally driven. They begin with inspired young people working out of bedrooms, kitchens, local cafes and shared workplaces as they develop fresh, exciting ideas and bid to secure their very first customers.

And such businesses require highspeed digital access to thrive. These innovative new thought engines are crying out for better opportunities.

With the cost-of-living crisis and mortgage quandary making it increasingly difficult for young professionals to put down roots in the region’s cities, many are choosing to live with parents or rent in more rural areas purely for affordability.

However, many South West businesses have been held back by substandard connectivity that has greatly inhibited their ability to compete on the national or international stage. Due to the region’s lack of appropriate digital infrastructure, many young people simply cannot work for, or set up the sort of businesses with which they are most likely to succeed.

Nonetheless, there is a growing opportunity for rural, urban and semi-urban communities across the South West to reinvent themselves as creative, entrepreneurial digital hubs. Delivering connectivity to ‘hard to reach’ areas used to be cost prohibitive, resulting in major providers investing infrastructure into easier to build and more profitable areas – hence the digital divide between the South West and the rest of the UK.

But thankfully, this is simply not the case anymore. Truespeed, a private sector firm based in Bath, has turned the broadband game on its head, proving high-speed, ultrafast broadband infrastructure can be built cost-effectively and is subsequently bringing the South West’s businesses and residents some of the fastest broadband speeds in the world.

Backed by £175 million of Aviva funding, Truespeed is pioneering the transformation of the South West digital landscape. Having connected over 300 local businesses and over 11,000 residents to guaranteed speed, full-fibre broadband. Truespeed is levelling up the digital playing field once and for all and providing a digital platform for South West businesses to effectively compete on.

A digital landscape that supports budding founders and entrepreneurs, offers viable hybrid working models, underpins business productivity and provides online leverage when competing in national and international markets, is vital for the South West’s long-term economic prosperity.

For too long the region’s businesses and residents have been left in the digital slow lane, but as we enter 2023, the South West can rest assured Truespeed is closing down the digital divide, and thanks to its future Gigabit-capable broadband, ensuring the gap stays shut once and for all.