{"id":404808,"date":"2026-02-03T01:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404808\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:37:07","slug":"barnsley-rebranded-uks-first-tech-town-as-us-giants-join-ai-push-technology-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/404808\/","title":{"rendered":"Barnsley rebranded UK\u2019s first \u2018tech town\u2019 as US giants join AI push | Technology sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2002 Barnsley<\/a> toyed with a redesign as a Tuscan hill village as it sought out a brighter post-industrial future. In 2021 it adopted the airily vague slogan \u201cthe place of possibilities\u201d. Now it is trying a different image: Britain\u2019s first \u201ctech town\u201d.<\/p>\n

The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has anointed the South Yorkshire community as a trailblazer for \u201chow AI can improve everyday life\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n

In the latest move in Labour\u2019s drive to inject AI into Britain\u2019s bloodstream, the government has announced three US tech companies \u2013 Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Adobe \u2013 have agreed to help as the council pushes to apply AI to local schools, hospitals, GPs and businesses in Barnsley, an area of South Yorkshire which has struggled<\/a> with unemployment and deprivation since the coal pits closed.<\/p>\n

The town and its 250,000 people have been chosen because they have already adopted AI faster than many places, said Sir Stephen Houghton, the Labour leader of Barnsley metropolitan borough council. His authority has been using AI assistants for the last couple of years in adult social care and children\u2019s services, and its bin lorries have been enabled with tech to scan roads for potholes. The parcel company Evri, which has one of its largest distribution hubs in the town, has been trialling robot dogs for deliveries.<\/p>\n

Barnsley town hall. Photograph: Richard Saker\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

But local opposition leaders have warned rebranding Barnsley as a tech town \u201cmight seem a bit of a leap\u201d and highlighted local anxiety about whether AI is a force for good.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctech town\u201d status means residents will get free AI and digital training, businesses will be supported to adopt AI, the hospital will test AI tools for check-ins, triage and outpatient care and AI will be tested in schools and at Barnsley College, all in an effort to improve pupils\u2019 results and teachers\u2019 workloads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economic basis of Barnsley was destroyed 30 years ago,\u201d Houghton said. \u201cThis is the biggest opportunity we have had since then. The future of the economy is going to be in technology and for Barnsley to be at the centre of that is an incredible opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one area of uncertainty is the role of the tech companies. Houghton said: \u201cThe council won\u2019t be paying them. Whether the government is, we have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft already has a relationship with Barnsley College and, along with Google and Cisco, is understood to be working on a pro bono basis.<\/p>\n

Barnsley\u2019s \u2018tech town\u2019 status means residents will be eligible for free AI training. Photograph: Richard Saker\/The Observer<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are going to get AI to work for Britain, we need Britons and British public services that can work with AI,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cIf we can show that AI helps young people learn, supports local businesses to be more productive, and improves public services, then we can show what\u2019s possible for the whole country. What we learn here will shape how we roll out AI across the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ministers have faced criticism over their handling of big technology companies. Last week the government launched a national AI training programme to upskill 10 million citizens, but many of the online courses turned out to be bespoke<\/a> training for customers of particular companies such as Google, others<\/a> cost as much as \u00a3525 to complete and some simply promoted the merits of particular company\u2019s approaches to AI such as one explaining Microsoft\u2019s \u201cresponsible AI approach\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said hundreds of courses on the AI Skills Hub are free and where payment is required it is clearly advertised. \u201cAll courses are reviewed against a common set of criteria to ensure they are relevant, high quality, and delivered by eligible organisations,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Ministers have also been challenged<\/a> for holding meetings with tech bosses at the rate of more than once each working day. The government insists engagement is vital to create growth and transform services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about giving tech companies access to data they shouldn\u2019t be having,\u201d Houghton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a secure programme and we are not leaving ourselves open. But this stuff is not going away. We have to make sure we are smart enough to protect people while taking advantage of the positive stuff it brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Kitching, the leader of the council\u2019s Liberal Democrat opposition, said investment in the town was welcome but \u201cthere is a lot of anxiety among people about the use of AI and whether it is a force for good. We know it could be but there are darker sides as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Barnsley] is still really connected to its mining past,\u201d she said. \u201cYounger people see the jobs and opportunities around the tech town idea but older generations perhaps don\u2019t. There is a job to be done to get people onboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents \u201cwant the council to get the basics right\u201d, she said. Roads were \u201cabsolutely crumbling\u201d and in bad weather bins did not get collected, she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2002 Barnsley toyed with a redesign as a Tuscan hill village as it sought out a brighter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-404808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}