The digital industries are critical to the UK’s overall economic performance. Eight per cent of the country’s gross domestic product is generated by intellectual property and almost two million people are employed in the UK’s creative industries. It was in this backdrop that the Digital Britain Summit took place last week to enable industry players and government ministers to get together and discuss the pressing issues of our time.

With Lord Carter’s review into the state of ‘Digital Britain’ due this summer NMK wanted to know what difference – if any – last week’s summit made and whose responsibility it is to make Digital Britain happen.

The State We’re In

If there was one overarching theme from the industry players NMK spoke to regarding Digital Britain it was that, for all its talk, it was the UK Government that ultimately holds responsibility for equipping the UK to compete in the digital economy.

Penny Power is founder of business social network ecademy. Power says she spoke to Business Secretary Peter Mandelson at London Heathrow Airport last week and told him how much she enjoyed his Twitter updates, to which he reportedly proudly responded; “Oh no, they are not me.”

At the time of writing, Lord Mandelson had only made 22 status updates and not changed it since late February. This episode alone causes great concern to Power, citing a lack of digital understanding and leadership from Britain’s business leaders.

“Investment and understanding of social media in the UK is very poor within the venture capitalist, banking and corporate world therefore we have little chance of being significant. It is the small businesses that are truly embracing digital and understanding the impact of it globally,” she told NMK. “Secondly, if the Business Secretary of our country is proud that he does not tweet, what chance is there for any of us? The Institute of Directors (IoD) and the British Chamber of Commerce are slow to adopt social media, in fact, the institutions and the government is holding us back.”

Those Provincial Types…

While investment in digital skills is essential to the growth of a digital economy, there remain huge swathes of the economy which are yet to get online, especially in rural areas, according to Manoj Solanki of SeekBroadband.com, a broadband price comparison site.

Solanki would like to see more emphasis away from the UK’s main conurbations.

“From some of the feedback I’ve seen and heard about so far in response to the Digital Britain Summit many rural users are concerned that they are not receiving enough attention,” he said. “As Gordon Brown pointed out, there will be a need to provide and promote digital skills, and this will be a key part getting [non-Web] users online. Promoting the benefits of a Digital Britain and persuading to get online will be a challenge. I know many small businesses owners who prefer to stay away from the Internet, including email!”

Vote for Digital

Andrew Ferguson (pictured) is editor of ThinkBroadband.com and he agrees that rural areas are at risk of being overlooked. He goes one step further and says that broadband availability could even become an election issue next year.

“The only thing we know for certain is that a General Election is due in 2010, and with broadband being ever more critical we should be hearing from other parties as to what their plans are,” he said. “The danger if even the current government was to underwrite a full national fibre network as some would like, is that a new government could overturn things. The [Digital Britain] Summit was noticeably lacking in any cross-party involvement which for a national infrastructure product will be key.”

Regulation Issue

Presuming the UK Government does manage to gain cross-party and cross-industry consensus on providing investment and infrastructure for higher universal high-speed broadband availability, the issue of red tape will need to be addressed, according to Michael Ridley, a partner at legal consultants DLA Piper.

“Even if the political will is truly there and if funding is indeed available – which are both pretty big 'ifs' in today's uncertain world – I am not over confident that the government will be able to deliver a fully Digital Britain,” he warned. “One obvious ‘grit in the oyster’ is getting the regulatory framework sorted and there is no great government track record of making this happen. For example, the Communications Act of 2003, which was meant to be a long-lasting legislation that would get us through this digital revolution, looks like it's going to need a major overhaul after only six years.”

Ridley said a key consideration would be whether the UK Government will want to micromanage the process or, once it has a set direction and ironed out funding, whether it will lift the regulatory burden and let the market get on with delivery.

“The government’s language signals sympathy with both sides, giving each party hope that they will not be losers in the UK’s digital future,” Ridley concluded. “However, these are diametrically opposed positions, so how the government intends to keep both sides happy in practice is the fundamental challenge. It will be an absolute feat if they can pull it off.”