Investing in IT

It is acknowledged by industry experts, policy makers and commentators that access to reliable and affordable high speed broadband has become an essential prerequisite for sustaining modern highly competitive economies.

Existing UK broadband provision, in many parts of the country including Wirral, is currently below international standards and if the rate of infrastructure investment is not increased the disparity with other parts of the UK and internationally will grow to the detriment of UK global competitiveness. At the sub-regional level the impact of this disparity is greatly magnified resulting in potentially fewer inward investment inquiries and many fewer business growth opportunities.

In March 2010 Wirral Council committed to investing £12million in its IT infrastructure so as to provide super-fast Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband to businesses throughout the Borough.

Some of the headline benefits to Wirral of next generation access are;  

• The creation of a world-class business environment and infrastructure provision allowing companies to thrive by reaching new customers, increasing sales, reducing time to market and greatly lowering costs. 
• Raised confidence within the private sector that Wirral is an enterprising location for inward investment projects and the development of high growth sectors,
• Greatly improve the efficiency of public service delivery particularly in the field of health care, education and research which will compliment economic development by the private sector.

It is anticipated that the first businesses will be benefiting from the first phase of installation within 18 months.

Wirral Council intend to use a mixture of public resources to provide NGA in designated priority areas.  If you would like to know more about Wirral's provision of NGA technologies click here

With regard to the Council’s State Aid obligations there is no desire to use any public funding where there are plans to provide NGA by the private sector. In this way Wirral Council wish to avoid any distortion of the natural commercial market and would invite any electronic communications provider who may be affected by this proposed project to contact Wirral Council.