UK Digital Infrastructure Investment Hit £11.2 Billion in 2025, ONS Figures Show

New Office for National Statistics research reveals market sector spending on digital infrastructure is more than triple the figure recorded under the existing “telecommunications” measure.

The UK’s market sector invested £11.2 billion in digital infrastructure in 2025, according to research published by the Office for National Statistics — more than three times the £3.6 billion recorded under the existing national accounts “telecommunications” category for the same year. The gap reflects a broader definition, not new economic activity: the expanded measure counts data centres, software, databases, fibre-optic cables, and selected intellectual property products as digital infrastructure, where the older measure does not.

The figures show just how much the traditional accounting approach has been missing. Back in 2022, the same expanded methodology put digital infrastructure investment at £9.2 billion, compared with just £1.2 billion under the narrower existing measure — a difference of £8 billion in a single year.

ONS classifies these new figures as “official statistics in development”, meaning they sit alongside — but separate from — the core UK National Accounts. They’re research estimates, subject to further consultation before any formal integration into headline statistics. Some analysts have warned that large upward revisions of this kind can complicate trend analysis and budget planning, and that re-labelling existing assets as infrastructure doesn’t automatically mean new investment has taken place.

Digital infrastructure forms a major slice of total UK market sector infrastructure spending. The ONS puts overall market sector infrastructure investment at about £31.3 billion in 2025 in 2023 chained volume measures, placing the £11.2 billion digital figure at roughly a third of that total.

For Kent, no county-level breakdown exists — ONS publishes national estimates only. But the county sits on key data and connectivity corridors linking London with continental Europe, and local authorities including Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council, Canterbury City Council, and Dover District Council all reference digital connectivity in their economic strategies. NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board also depends on digital networks for electronic health records and telemedicine. Better-measured national investment figures could, in time, support funding bids for local digital upgrades, though any direct link between the £11.2 billion figure and specific Kent outcomes remains unquantified.