Local charities and councils could benefit from £9.5 million in new UK government funding to turbo-charge grassroots efforts to help the 1.6 million people in the UK who can’t access to online world.

The money will seek to support the best and smartest ways of tackling digital exclusion, which could include putting on workshops to familiarise people with tech, schemes donating devices like phones and laptops to the digitally excluded, all led by local councils, charities and other bodies working in the heart of their communities.

Digital exclusion is holding too many people back and tackling it is critical to driving growth.

Research suggests that 7.9 million adults across the UK lack basic digital skills, while 1.6 million people live offline altogether.

These are people who are locked out from some of the basic opportunities that modern life offers, whether that’s mastering the essential digital skills for work – like setting up an email account and sharing files – or facing higher costs for things like home insurance, train travel and food – with people paying up to 25% more than consumers who are online.

The UK Government has today launched the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund to help tackle these issues and get more people online. In England, local government, charities and research organisations can apply for funding worth £25,000 to £500,000 to help boost digital inclusion and skills in their local areas.

The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will determine their own arrangements for the distribution of funding to best support local digital inclusion initiatives. This follows June’s launch of the IT Reuse for Good charter, where organisations can pledge to donate devices to the digitally excluded.

UK Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:  “It is unacceptable that in 2025, millions of people across the UK simply can’t access the vast opportunities that technology and the online world offers. Digital inclusion is an essential for modern life and work, not just something that’s nice to have, and it forms a critical part of our Plan for Change.

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“Making technology widely accessible could be the thing that means a sick patient can speak to a GP remotely, or that helps a young person successfully apply for a job. Through this funding we’re moving further to empower local leaders and groups nationwide, who are already working tirelessly to get their communities connected and change countless lives for the better.”

The fund is being directed at local organisations because, according to the UK Government, they are best placed to know how to support the needs of their communities. Where new and innovative ways of tackling digital exclusion are shown to be effective, the hope is that by proving them through this fund, they can then be rolled out wider across the country.