Bristol Overtakes London as the United Kingdom’s Leading Smart City

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UK cities are demonstrating an impressive commitment to service and technology innovation by embedding smart city ideas into daily operations. A new white paper from Navigant Research, commissioned by Huawei, examines the strategy and execution of 20 leading smart cities in the United Kingdom, highlighting each city’s strategy, key projects, and overall readiness to execute its smart city vision.

The political, economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the UK are increasing the focus on the role of cities in driving innovation in areas such as transportation, clean energy, health and social care, education, and urban sustainability. Cities are responding with support for an ambitious range of technology projects, and they are also developing new strategies and governance models that aim to embed innovation at the heart of city policy.

“Bristol and London continue to set the pace for UK cities. Both are building on their existing programs and are working hard to embed innovation across city operations, infrastructure, and service delivery,” says Eric Woods, research director with Navigant Research. “Bristol has edged ahead to take the top position largely because of the strong momentum it has shown over the last 12 months. The city has made significant strides in extending its innovation programs and in the closer integration of those initiatives into city operations.”

According to the white paper, UK cities are demonstrating an impressive commitment to service and technology innovation. Many cities have begun embedding smart city ideas into city planning and operations while preparing for the impact of the next wave of technologies, including 5G, autonomous vehicles, and machine learning.

The white paper, UK Smart Cities Index, was commissioned by Huawei UK, and evaluates the UK smart city market, with a focus on two dimensions: Strategy and Execution. The Strategy dimension assesses each city’s vision, goals, and objectives as they relate to its smart city program. The Execution dimension assesses the city’s actual achievements from initial projects to full-blown deployment of innovative technologies and services. Cities are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing an objective assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of their smart city programs.