The economic benefit of getting everyone online in the
UK is £22bn, according to a report from
PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The economic boost would come from online shopping, greater
access to employment for the unemployed and savings for government
as more services are accessed online. Internet access for children
is also likely to improve their performance at school.
The report shows that more than 10 million adults in the UK have
never used the internet, and are missing out on £1bn worth of
savings as a result.
It estimates that government could save at least £900m a year in
customer contact costs if all digitally excluded adults made just
one electronic contact a month.
Of the ten million offline adults in the UK, 40% are also
socially excluded and are largely either over 65 or unemployed.
The government has set up the digital inclusion task force,
chaired by lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox, to look at
increasing the proportion of people who are online.
Lane Fox said, “There are many fantastic projects already
working hard towards a more digitally enabled society. With a focus
on peer-to-peer training, creative partnerships with private
companies and replication of the best public sector projects we
believe we can achieve a more digitally included society by
2012.”
Previous research on the issue has focussed on the moral or
social arguments for increasing digital inclusion. These are the
first figures that show the economic imperatives for getting more
people on the web.