Over the past 6 months, we’ve been working across the West Midlands to develop a shared vision for the role digital can play in our future, and particularly how it can support post-Covid recovery. Today, the WMCA Board approved that shared vision — the WMCA Digital Roadmap. We’ll shortly be launching the full Roadmap, and sharing news on projects around digital inclusion, data sharing, digital enterprise, and Climate Tech. This post sets the scene for the Roadmap, and introduces our 5 missions. First, we’ll outline the West Midlands digital context.

Digital Strengths…

The West Midlands has enormous digital assets.

We have the best 5G coverage in the UK, double the next best Combined Authority area.

Transport for the West Midlands are national leaders in digital innovation in mobility — the Regional Transport Coordination Centre and the work of the TfWM Data Insights team are a couple of exemplar initiatives.

TfWM director of network resilience Anne Shaw shows Transport Secretary Grant Shapps the RTCC

The Department for International Trade have identified three High Potential Opportunity areas in the West Midlands around digital & tech — ‘Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Modelling and Simulation’ in Coventry and Warwickshire, ‘Data Driven Healthcare & Technologies’ in Birmingham and Solihull, and the ‘Silicon Spa’ Gaming Industry in Warwickshire.

The Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute recently opened the £9 million Midlands Centre for Cyber Security, and the University of Warwick was one of the first to be named an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Our 2017 Devo Deal established the Office for Data Analytics who work with the WM Regional Economic Development Institute to provide shared data analytic capacity. And we have major strengths across the public sector, with West Midlands Police seen as pioneers in digital transformation, and University Hospitals Birmingham and Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trusts both designated as NHS Global Digital Exemplars.

…and Digital Challenges

But there are also real barriers to the region realising our digital potential.

The West Midlands has the highest number of non-internet users in the UK at around 20%, with a further 20% only limited users — as highlighted by Good Things Foundation research.

We have significant areas of limited broadband connectivity, particularly in the Black Country — with full fibre coverage under 15% in Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley, and Wolverhampton. We also have limited mobile connectivity, with approximately 10% of our geography having no 4G coverage.

We’ve made great progress in training through our Digital Skills Partnership, but amongst UK regions we still have the highest proportion of employers who say they find applicants with digital skills difficult to find (38%).

Our firms are not all digitally enabled, contributing to a large and persistent productivity gap. Our tech firms also suffer from limited equity investment, with the lowest deals per 10,000 SMEs of any English region.

We also don’t do enough to work together on digital — with TechUK highlighting our lack of ‘local digital capital’.

Impact of Covid

Covid has put a new lens on these successes and challenges. Many firms have rapidly adopted new digital technologies to change their business models, and some workforces have shifted seamlessly to online communication and working from home.

But the digital divide has been exacerbated. Families across the region have struggled with home schooling given a lack of devices or unaffordable connections. And many micro and small business have struggled to overcome barriers to tech adoption, furthering the gap between the long tail of low productivity firms and industry leaders.

The Digital Roadmap

Our Roadmap starts from this context, and sets out 5 missions for shared regional collaboration in the coming years.

A Wolverhampton Digital Inclusion Scheme. Front —Student at Access to Business receives on-loan digital device; Centre — Councillor Louise Miles, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources, and Councillor Beverley Momenabadi, Digital Innovation Champion; Back — Lester Knight, Access to Business Senior Business Advisor

1. Securing access for everyone to digital opportunities, particularly those in poverty — bringing together work on digital inclusion and digital skills to bridge the digital divide.
2. Sharing and using data to improve people’s lives — improving data sharing across the region and building data analytic capacity for improved public services and sustainable economic growth.
3. Becoming the UK’s best-connected region — maintaining leadership on 5G, and accelerating full fibre rollout and 4G connectivity improvements.
4. Realising the potential of digital to transform our economy and build economic resilience — diffusing basic digital technologies to low productivity firms, accelerating adoption of frontier technologies, and supporting digital and tech firms looking to scale up.
5. Using digital public services to build a fairer, greener, healthier region — focussing initially on reaching our net zero ambitions, tackling health inequalities, and supporting individuals with multiple and complex needs.

We’ll share more details of the regional activity and key actions we’ve set out to support these missions in future posts.

Pioneering municipal leaders like Joseph Chamberlain ensured the success of the places they led through a mastery of the most advanced forms of production — whether that was mechanization, electrification, or the advent of telecommunication. Our Roadmap sets the foundation for the West Midlands to once again be at the frontier of economic and societal transformation. We look forward to working with partners on realising this vision, and we’ll share our successes and stumbles along the way.