Commenting on the Chancellor's investment in science and innovation announced in today's Budget, including £140 million in world class research on the infrastructure and cities of the future and £40 million in research into the Internet of Things, David Cobb, technology partner at Deloitte, said:
"It's great to see the Government focusing on science and innovation, and investing in the most likely growth drivers of the next decade.
"One of the main issues with the 'Internet of Things' is ensuring that the high speed connectivity is available to make the benefits and objectives possible. Remote connectivity can be difficult at the best of times, but when millions of additional 'things' start to connect and transmit data, that will slow things down in the fastest of areas. An investment in infrastructure is needed to help ensure that the connectivity exists, enabling UK companies to progress and getting us to a position where the UK's capability in Internet of Things is as strong as our capability in FinTech.
"The investment in digital currency technology is also interesting, but it is not yet clear what the objective is there. One of the most interesting aspects of the Bitcoin development is the underlying block chain technology and its potential application in many other areas, so it would be good to see some further support for this aspect."
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