Whether it be the weekly food shop, booking a class at your local leisure centre, or looking after your personal finances, we carry out many daily activities online. Increasingly though, not only private services but a broad range of public services are accessed through the internet. Often referred to as the ‘digital by default’ agenda, across health services, social housing and the welfare benefits system, vital services are conducted through digital platforms. Lacking the opportunity or ability to access these online services presents a challenge to public service provision. Research shows that digital exclusion is higher in rural areas than urban locations, but less is known about the conditions that underpin rural digital exclusion, be they attitudinal or skillsbased, for example. To bridge this gap in evidence, new research from Lancaster University Management School and the Work Foundation, funded by the British Academy, explores digital poverty in rural communities in the North West. Through a representative survey, a series of in-depth interviews, and a workshop that included a range of stakeholders, the study has identified some critical dimensions of digital poverty as experienced by these communities: • While 95%of the survey sample have access to the internet, a quarter are not able to make the most of that, with 14% saying they would like to use more online services and 16% reporting they have trouble doing things that they want to do online. • Although connectivity was a problem for a small number of respondents, the most common signifier of digital poverty was low confidence in using core digital skills, experienced by 30 |
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