COVID highlights digital divide between UK renters and home owners

New study from Quality of Life Foundation and CityFibre shows extent to which access to online connectivity impacts quality of life.

  • A total of 80% of people now say that day-to-day life would be impossible or significantly worse without online connectivity.
  • Figures suggest a potential digital divide may be emerging as renters were nearly twice as likely to describe their connection as only average or unreliable compared to those who own their own home.
  • Usage overall soared during the pandemic — half of us are now spending at least four hours using the internet each day, with over a quarter spending over six hours online.

A new joint study by the Quality of Life Foundation and CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent Full Fibre platform, has revealed the growing importance of online connectivity to the nation’s overall quality of life.

The study has also highlighted that the reliability and speed of your connection can vary significantly if you are a homeowner or a renter, demonstrating the need to ensure that nobody is left behind in the nationwide rollout of Full Fibre broadband.

Following a year of Covid restrictions, the new figures reveal the extent to which we now rely on connectivity as a central part of our everyday lives. Just 1% of people now say that the internet isn’t important at all to their lives, with 42% saying that the internet is now so important that their lives would be impossible without it — up more than a third from pre-pandemic levels.

However, the new research identified an underlying trend showing people are more likely to be satisfied with their connection if they are a homeowner compared to a renter. Renters were nearly twice as likely to describe their connection as only average or unreliable than those who own their own home. This has had a significant impact on the nation’s ability to cope during the lockdown as homeowners found it a fifth (21%) easier than renters to perform tasks such as home working or online schooling.