Digital exclusion means millions are cut-off from the essentials of modern life. It must be fixed now

Despite decades of digital progress, millions across the UK remain shut out – not because they lack interest or ability, but because the systems around them were never built with them in mind. Disconnected Britain isn’t just about who is offline, but that between policy and practice. Digital exclusion isn’t a glitch, but a structural failure, one which requires urgency, investment and a commitment to lasting change to ensure people don’t remain offline and left behind.

Exclusion isn’t accidental, it’s engineered

Digital inclusion in the UK is not a matter of personal reluctance or lack of awareness, an issue that, with the right training session, donated laptop, or signposted support service, will quietly resolve itself. Despite many well-intentioned interventions, an estimated 1.7 million households across the UK remain cut off from the essentials of modern life – not due to reluctance, but because the systems around them were never designed for universal inclusion.

Let’s be clear: digital exclusion is not an unfortunate oversight. It’s the predictable result of decisions made, and unmade, by successive governments, service providers and regulators who treated digital access as a luxury, rather than acknowledging it as the infrastructure of daily life. When it comes to solving the issue of digital exclusion, we are not looking at a lack of options, we are looking at a lack of will.

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This is not about devices or “tech uptake”. It’s about whether someone can apply for a job. Book a GP appointment. Access universal credit. Submit a homework assignment. One in five children are in digital poverty. Nearly half of those over aged 75 do not use the internet at all. Yet essential services, from prescription renewals to council tax systems, are increasingly streamlined into digital-only formats, effectively designing out the people least able to adapt.

The stakes are not abstract, they are immediate, measurable and deeply personal, felt not only in the small moments where connection means dignity, independence and choice, but paint a larger picture of who can keep up and who is left to fall further behind.

Policy in motion – but not yet at pace

In February 2025, the government released its Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps. We welcomed it. It acknowledges, at last, that digital exclusion is not a fringe issue – it is central to participation in modern Britain. The plan outlines five initial measures, including the launch of a Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund and a pilot device donation scheme, developed and delivered in partnership with the Digital Poverty Alliance. These are real commitments – but this was not designed as a comprehensive strategy.

At the Digital Poverty Alliance, our own response has been to go further. The recently updated National Delivery and Advocacy Plan, released in June, lays out a coordinated national approach across six missions: affordable connectivity, sustainable access, inclusive design, strong local delivery capacity, lifelong digital skills, and a commitment to evidence-based policymaking. It is a framework not rooted in theory, but in action.

Each of these missions is grounded in real-world challenges faced by people across the country. Teachers forced to print worksheets for pupils who cannot get online, carers cut off from online training,families in temporary housing handed deadlines without the tools to meet them. These are not edge cases or outliers, but the predictable outcomes of a system that remains fundamentally unequal by design.

Connected needs – disconnected delivery

The issue of being disconnected does not only relate to people, but to systems. One of the most damaging features of digital exclusion is not just that people are being left behind, but they are being left behind by different systems, in different ways, all at once.

Education, healthcare, housing and personal finance are all increasingly digital and are deeply interconnected. Yet the policy response remains fragmented. A child who can’t access online learning is likely in a household that also struggles to manage digital banking or book GP appointments. One area of disconnection rarely stays contained; it spreads. With nearly a quarter of UK adults digitally excluded in some form, this isn’t just a digital skills gap, but a system-wide failure to coordinate. Without a joined up approach, we risk reinforcing exclusion at every turn.

This lack of coordination doesn’t just create inefficiencies, but creates real barriers in peoples lives. The result is a patchwork system that expects digital participation, but fails to make it possible. Until we align policy across sectors and deliver services that recognise the reality on the ground, we’ll continue to build a Britain that only works for some, not all.

We have the tools – we need the will

The good news? The tools to close the digital divide already exist. The challenge ahead is not invention, but implementation as the bad news is these tools remain unevenly deployed, underfunded or ignored. Millions of useable devices are discarded flippantly instead of being refurbished and redistributed and community organisations remain the silent backbone of digital support.

The government must now treat digital access as a basic utility, on par with electricity, water and housing. While this requires infrastructure investment, it also requires cohesion and long-term policy alignment. Digital inclusion should be embedded in Treasury frameworks, education policy, NHS strategy, and in local government funding settlements. It cannot remain a bolt-on, but must be a cross-sector commitment measured with the same urgency as any other determinant of opportunity and well-being.

While digital poverty is complex in its causes, it’s consequences are devastatingly consistent: exclusion from work, healthcare, education and from connection. That exclusion breeds isolation and erodes hope. We don’t need another wave of warm words, but need national infrastructure for inclusion. This means recycling and redistributing the five million devices discarded each year, embedding digital support workers in every library, care home, job centre and school. It means designing public services that assume no less than full participation and making that assumption true. It means holding tech companies, telecoms and government departments accountable and ensuring progress isn’t lost in the gap between intention and implementation.

The task ahead is not to start from scratch, but to finish what has begun. Digital inclusion must become the default, not the afterthought, and we must prove through sustained action, that we are serious about closing the divide, not just with intent, but with persistence.

Joel Tiller is head of external affairs at Digital Poverty Alliance.

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