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Positioning town for future growth in the digital age

WITH growth in the UK’s digital economy gathering momentum, towns and cities across the UK are vying for the attention of investors, start-ups and tech talent as they position themselves for future leadership and growth.

Northampton is no different. At a recent event, local business influencers, decision makers and stakeholders gathered together to explore how they could make sure their town isn’t left behind as the world delves deeper into the digital age.

Across industry, experts believe that the future prosperity of the UK – a services based economy – depends on being able to offer businesses and public services access to future-proofed full-fibre connectivity – the only digital asset to provide guaranteed fast downloads, unlimited bandwidth and true reliability.

As a result, a growing chorus of Northampton leaders want to grasp the opportunities promised by full-fibre (and already enjoyed by their neighbouring regions) amid fears the county will lose its appeal to investors as the digital race gathers pace.

Leader of Northampton Borough Council, Jonathan Nunn, agreed with the concerns, commenting: “The prosperity of the town relies on ensuring that businesses can get the facilities they need so we can retain and attract highly-skilled jobs. The ball is in our court.”

Leading alternative infrastructure provider, CityFibre, hosted the gathering at Franklins Gardens, inviting guests to share their digital ambitions for Northampton and discuss how the town’s transformation into a Gigabit City could help it overcome the pressure currently being placed on its existing legacy communications infrastructure.

Businesses represented at the session included shoe manufacturer Church’s, Northampton Saints and CityFibre’s local partner dbfb with other representative from the county and borough councils, the University of Northampton and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

Chairing the session was Marc Lough, Business Development Manager at CityFibre, who opened the floor calling by asking the question: “Where is Northampton at the moment? What are your perceptions of provisions of connectivity?”

Attendees agreed that improving the current connectivity offering should be made a greater priority, and when discussing options, the full-fibre option made the most sense if the town was to meet the needs of today and the future. This was especially the case given that CityFibre had already made a significant investment by installing an extensive full-fibre network spanning the entire city. This would not only improve the digital experience of local users, it would underpin the development of smart city technology such as public wi-fi, smart street lighting, HD CCTV and 4G and 5G upgrades.

The alternative would be to accept upgrades to existing networks which still depend on cabinets and at best, part-fibre connectivity. Northampton’s current system is linked via exchanges, often in green boxes along the side of the road, but systems like CityFibre’s lay fibre directly to each property, also known as fibre-to-the-premise or FTTP.

Speaking of his experience, Brian Facer, Commercial Director at The Saints, agreed that the unreliability of the current infrastructure did have an influence on the way people live and work. He explained: “Demand for connectivity is growing as use of devices linked to the Internet increases. The club has already made substantial investment but the current service is restricting growth. We would like to do more but not having a bandwidth that can cope has been a challenge. If the service goes down our business literally grinds to a halt.”

He added: “What’s more, the new Data Protection laws mean even more pressure on businesses to have access 24/7. Those who do not take the right steps face fines. It is a real threat facing anyone in business.”

Others also raised their concerns about the city’s connectivity, highlighting the invaluable role it now plays in their businesses and organisations.

Simon Pickering from dbfb stated: “What I have started to learn is about the impact that fibre can have, not just around business, or children’s futures, certainly around how we go and train, how we look at healthcare. One thing I have learnt is with our connectivity in the UK, we are pretty Victorian in what we have.”

Jon Hinde, Economic Development Consultant at Northampton Borough Council said: “We know when talking to businesses that connectivity is now a utility as much as gas and water. We can talk to them about these other utilities but cannot talk to them with any great confidence about this.”

Similarly, Rob Purdie, regional Policy Lead for the Federation of Small Businesses, highlighted: “Many small businesses are home-based. Cyber security is a real issue and connectivity is absolutely critical,” – a statement with which David Moss, from shoe retailer Church’s, was in complete agreement.

It was also widely acknowledged that many businesses were unaware of the impact increased demand could have if the current connectivity offering didn’t improve.

Colin Thompson, Director of Commercial Banking at NatWest, explained: “The trouble is many of my clients don’t know how much pressure they are putting on their systems. It is working but they don’t know how close they are to the edge and how close it is to failing.”

Helen Miller, from Northamptonshire County Council, Secretary of Northamptonshire Business Activity Committee, commented: “We need to help businesses and individuals to see the opportunities if the right infrastructure is in place, and how they can improve their productivity and make the most of emerging programmes.”

Charlotte Patrick, Key Sector and Knowledge Transfer Manager, University of Northampton, added: “It is critical we get the right message out to people. What we don’t want to happen is that in 18 months’ time we have missed opportunities.”

When the discussion moved to exploring solutions, many attendees pointed to the need to involve the town’s decision makers and encourage them to take into account the views of the business community when making investment decisions.

This was particularly the case when it came to local authorities and improving the county’s infrastructure. Speakers at the event highlighted the hotly anticipated LGSS tender – one of the largest public sector shared services ventures of its kind in the United Kingdom.

Owned by Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes council bodies, the LGSS tender creates an opportunity not only for public sector transformation and cost savings but also economic growth and a digital boost to businesses and residents – for this to happen the procurement outcomes do need to ensure a full-fibre outcome in urban areas, such as Northampton, as a minimum. In fact, this option would directly support Northampton’s ambitious target to drive the creation of 60,000 jobs by 2026.

Speaking of the opportunity at the event, former MP and Director at local enterprise partnership SEMLEP, Brian Binley commented: “If we don’t have this infrastructure then we are running a real risk of not providing the 60,000 jobs.

“We need to make sure that the people at LGSS are listening to our plea. Once businesses and people had five criteria before they move to an area … now there is a sixth – connectivity.”

He added: “It is essential for the future growth of jobs. Bandwidth and speed are no longer a luxury, it is a necessity for those who want to run a business.”

Marc Lough, Business Development Manager at CityFibre, recognised one of the biggest challenges is simply showing people what might be possible if the right infrastructure is in place.

He said: “People don’t know what they don’t know. How do you make a business future proof for the next ten or even 20 years?”

For Martin Kemp, Head of Public Sector at CityFibre, full fibre had to be the way forward:

“An investment in ‘full fibre’ by LGSS acts as a ‘spring board’ for private sector, delivering choice and competition to Northampton as well as resilience through alternative infrastructure.”

How are Gigabit Cities already transforming the UK?

Since becoming a Gigabit City in 2013, Peterborough has already seen a dramatic change in the way people live and work. Having embraced the digital revolution, in 2015 Peterborough won the world ‘Smart City of the Year’, beating cities such as Moscow and Dubai.

Originally anchored by Peterborough City Council, over 100 public sector sites, including 50 schools in Peterborough have been connected to CityFibre’s ultrafast, pure-fibre network. This has provided a future-proofs network for Peterborough City Council to develop their ambitious digital strategy, so much so that a further 220 public sector sites are now being connected, including CCTV and traffic signals.

The CityFibre network currently supports over 200 businesses across Peterborough, including Peterborough United, and their adjoining Allia Future Business Centre.

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