Smart cities in the UK
Published on 20th Feb 2015
The third instalment of the blog series based on our Smart Cities in Europe, Enabling Innovation report takes a look at the findings on smart cities in the UK.
Progress on smart cities
The UK is home to a large number of smart
cities. According to a report by the European
Parliament, the UK is one of only three
European countries that has more than 31
cities with at least one smart initiative (Click to tweet), the others being Italy and France. However,
when measured as a percentage of the
total number of cities, the UK performs
less well – less than three-quarters of UK
cities with a population of over 100,000 can
be considered ‘smart’, behind a number of
countries, including Italy, Denmark, Sweden,
Finland and Austria.*
The UK has implemented a number of
initiatives designed to accelerate the
development of smart cities. These include:
Funding: The UK Government, through
Innovate UK, has implemented a series of
programmes that provide funding directly to
cities for investment in smart initiatives. In
January 2013, Innovate UK awarded £24
million to Glasgow, following a competition
entered into by 30 UK cities, for investment
in smart initiatives. Innovate UK has also
launched the ‘Future Cities Catapult’, funded
with up to £50 million over five years. The
Catapult will explore ways that public services
can be integrated in a smart way to boost the
economy and benefit citizens.
Collaboration: The UK Department of
Business, Innovation and Skills has established
the Smart Cities Forum, which aims to identify
and address potential obstacles to the
realisation of smart cities through bringing
together city planners, the private sector and
academia. A series of initiatives run by the
Future Cities Catapult also brings together city
UK
planners and technology companies to assist
the private sector in understanding the specific
solutions cities require.
Targets: The UK has set a target to install
smart meters in every home by the end of
2020. The country is a long way behind
many other European countries – the
programme is only scheduled to begin in
earnest towards the end of 2015.
Standards: The British Standards Institution
(BSI) and the UK Department of Business,
Innovation and Skills have established a
programme to develop smart city standards.
Obstacles to smart cities
UK survey respondents broadly identify the
same obstacles to the roll-out of various
components of smart cities as their European
counterparts. Social obstacles, including the
lack of consumer demand and security and
privacy concerns, are the main obstacles to
the roll-out of smart meters. While this is also
regarded as a major obstacle elsewhere in
Europe, it is a more significant barrier in the
UK. Only 22% of UK survey respondents
believe UK energy consumers generally
understand and are convinced by the benefits
of installing smart meters (Click to tweet). The average across
Europe is 31%.
While UK survey respondents identified a
lack of finance as the greatest obstacle to
the implementation of intelligent transport
systems, they are also the group that believes
the roll-out of intelligent transport systems is a
priority for its transport authorities. Some 62%
of UK survey respondents believe the roll-out
of intelligent transport systems is a priority
for UK transport authorities, compared with a
Europe-wide average of 46%.
Another challenge for the UK in creating
smart cities is that many public services
are privatised to a greater extent than
in other European countries. This can
potentially slow the development of smart
cities for two reasons. Firstly, city planners
and governments need to convince private
companies of the benefits of investing in
smart initiatives. This may be problematic
if these initiatives undermine private
companies’ business models. For example,
many UK utilities have pushed back on the
Government’s plan to install smart meters in
every home by 2020.
In the UK privatised utility and transport
sectors, implementing smart technology that is
interoperable across the various private sector
suppliers is extremely challenging.
“There is
a strong desire in the UK public sector
to use smart ticketing,” (Click to tweet) explained Simon
Spooner, Partner, Osborne Clarke.
This has
been demonstrated by the success of
the Oyster card in London. However,
London benefits from having TFL as
a regulated operator, meaning it can
implement initiatives like Oyster cards
by itself. But in many other UK cities
such as Manchester, where a number of
different private companies operate bus
and rail routes, getting agreement on a
multi-mode and multi-operator smart
ticketing system is much harder.
Simon Spooner, Partner, Osborne Clarke
More smart cities information
Download the full smart cities in Europe report here.
*European Parliament Policy Department (January 2014), “Mapping Smart Cities in the EU”
