UK Economy £22 Billion A Year Down Due To Offline Households

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Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com and currently the digital inclusion champion for a government task force, has estimated that the British economy would be £22 billion a year better off if all homes were connected to the Internet.  The aim of the government task force is to get everyone online by 2012 as there is estimated to be around a substantional 14 million households without Internet access currently.

The exact way in which this will happen is as yet unknown but it has been agreed that success depends on the cooperation of the public and private sectors.

The majority of the extra money estimated to enter the economy due to digital inclusion comes from the expected increase in online sales.

The “Race Online 2012” report that has made these finding also announces that it expects online individuals to rake in an extra £12,000 over their lifetimes compared to offline individuals.

Sponsers of the government initiative have pooled £12 million together to help get these people online and are being led by communication watchdog Ofcom.

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