Bristol energy PR firm welcomes news that London and Bristol top smart city ranking

London and Bristol are Britain’s leading smart cities, according to new research commissioned by Huawei UK and conducted by Navigant Consulting.

The Huawei UK Smart Cities Index measures how well UK urban centres are doing at using digital technology. In it, London and Bristol have been ranked as leaders at the top of the table; next came Birmingham in third place, followed by Glasgow, Manchester, and Milton Keynes.

London and Bristol came top as a result of pioneering a range of urban innovations. London’s successes include its congestion charge scheme and other transport innovations plus the London Datastore.

Bristol’s achievements include the unique Bristol Is Open project, which has brought together the University of Bristol, Bristol City Council and industry partners to create a city scale network for innovation.

Overall, the research cites the need for future demonstration projects with strong emphasis on measurable outcomes and sound business cases, as well as encouraging wider collaboration and knowledge sharing between UK cities.

Further data suggests many people don’t truly understand what a smart city actually is.

Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy, commented: “The Huawei UK Smart Cities Index highlights cities developing innovative digital projects and measures how well they are performing against each other.

“I hope it will encourage city leaders to share best practice and promote competition, because smarter use of data and technology drives growth and delivers a better quality of life.”

Why being Bristol based is smart

“Being based in Bristol helps us to capitalise on smart city trends,” explains Jo Watchman, Founder and CEO, Content Coms.

“We work to help low carbon businesses thrive. Future smart cities will offer myriad improvements in terms of sustainability and energy efficiency.”

She reveals that smart infrastructure will revolutionise tomorrow’s sustainable urban centres. “Smart IT and LEDs can help light the city only where people are active; intelligent systems can plan and streamline public transport and traffic management, and can revolutionise how and when cities turn on renewable power.

“It is great that Bristol is stepping up in this way. As a low carbon communications specialist, we are strategically located in Bristol, not only to offer our services to nascent sustainable local businesses, but also to keep our smart knowledge up to date and ahead of the competition.”

Out from the crowd

“London and Bristol stand out from the crowd for combining technical innovation with a broader strategy for city development,” Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Consulting, who led the study, said.

“But there are a number of cities close behind them with strong smart city programmes. The message from our research is that more city leaders need to embed the idea of smart capabilities into their urban projects.

“Cities and central government also need to work together to ensure successful pilot projects are turned into scalable projects that benefit all citizens.”

Find out more about our communications expertise on smart cities, infrastructure and low carbon business.


Content Coms is one of the UK’s leading B2B communications consultancies specialising in the energy, low carbon and technology sectors. If you’ve enjoyed our article, how about reading more of our energy news and analysis?

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