Skip to main content

New initiative to support smart cities in the UK

The UK's cities will receive help to get smart, thanks to the launch of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills' new Smart Cities Forum. It comes as a new report values the smart cities industry at more than US$400 billion globally by 2020, with the UK expected to gain a ten per cent share (US$40 billion). The 'Global Market Opportunities and UK Capabilities for future smart cities' report highlights how this technology could transform lives and provide a huge economic boost.
October 10, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The UK's cities will receive help to get smart, thanks to the launch of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills' new Smart Cities Forum.

It comes as a new report values the smart cities industry at more than US$400 billion globally by 2020, with the UK expected to gain a ten per cent share (US$40 billion).  The 'Global Market Opportunities and UK Capabilities for future smart cities' report highlights how this technology could transform lives and provide a huge economic boost.

The Smart Cities Forum has been established, chaired by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts and Cities Minister Greg Clark, and with representatives from cities, business, and scientists, to ensure that the UK does not miss out on the opportunities offered by smart cities.

Willetts said: "The opportunity to develop new technologies for smart cities in the UK is massive. We want to make sure that we are at the forefront of this digital revolution so we can stay ahead in the global race designing new innovations in the UK and exporting them across the world.”

Volker Buscher, Arup Director and Smart Cities Forum member, who wrote the report, said: "By 2050, the human population will have reached nine billion people with 75 per cent of the world's inhabitants living in cities. Smart technologies can help address some of the challenges of rapid urbanisation by improving services and managing their efficiency.”

Related Content

  • Seoul Robotics thinks everything’s better in 3D
    January 9, 2024
    As more and more of us will live in urban areas and need to share space on the road, 3D perception and smart cities point the way to safer transportation, says William Muller of Seoul Robotics
  • Travel information is heading towards smartphones
    January 30, 2012
    Travel information services are undergoing a step change as rapid increase in sales of smartphones brings ITS technology to consumers' fingertips. A virtuous circle of expanding capability is under way in traffic and travel information services, promising much for drivers and reduction of road congestion. A recent rapid rise in sales of smartphones has boosted numbers of vehicles carrying GPS enabled devices and so brought expansion of traffic data available for analysis and dissemination. Greater numbers o
  • Is GIS modelling the answer to the implications of age?
    January 26, 2012
    Geoff Zeiss of Autodesk talks about the convergence going on between GIS and other software systems which will revolutionise the design and construction of nations' utilities. The issue is that we're getting old. But forget the discovery of body hair in places it never used to be, whether or not to dye, contact lenses versus glasses - in fact, put aside entirely the decision to age gracefully or outrageously; the personal implications pale next to the effects on wider society. Faced with the problem of how
  • A coalition of the willing: iATL
    April 5, 2024
    A living lab on the streets of Georgia, US, is helping to improve traffic safety by real-world deployments of technology. ITS International talks to the founder and some of the partners at the Infrastructure Automotive Technology Laboratory