Strategic Digital Infrastructure — East London Fibre & Housing Connectivity

From funding to first connections: delivering end-to-end fibre for economic growth and digital inclusion.

• Public speaking & stakeholder leadership: Represented the programme at regional forums and cross-borough partnerships; liaised with other local authorities to share methods and unblock delivery; maintained engagement with elected members, GLA officers, telcos, and community stakeholders.
• Programme management at scale: Acted as Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) with end-to-end accountability for budget, contracts, governance, and delivery. Led a multi-disciplinary team spanning telecoms providers, civil contractors, Highways, housing, legal, and internal IT/digital functions.
• Utilising investment: Utilising £1.02M from the Greater London Authority (GLA) Strategic Investment Pot (SIP) Fund, the programme was designed as part of the strategic development of East London, a region historically under-served by digital connectivity. Poor infrastructure was constraining SME growth, inward investment, and housing value.
• Procurement & legal frameworks: Directed the procurement of civil works and contracting with dark fibre partners, applying specialist telecoms knowledge on rights of use for ducts, poles, chambers, and fibre assets. Ensured long-term access, avoided duplication, and protected value for money.
• Civil works — ducts, poles & highways liaison:
• Unique delivery: Where many boroughs struggled to progress beyond concepts and pilots, this programme delivered a fully operational, scalable model with visible outcomes — setting a benchmark for peers.
• Oversaw installation of new ducting and poles to extend fibre routes efficiently.
• Liaised with Highways to secure permits, coordinate street works, and align with planned maintenance/regeneration to minimise disruption and cost.
• Built dark fibre capacity (unlit strands) to future-proof the network, enabling rapid scale without repeat digs.
• Wayleave agreements: Brokered borough-wide wayleaves with Openreach and Community Fibre, granting rights of access to council housing stock and civic assets — unlocking FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) for 4,000 social housing units at zero public cost, plus £120k in vendor contributions.
• ISP onboarding & switch-on: Coordinated with Internet Service Providers so residents and SMEs could switch on affordable, high-speed FTTP immediately after build completion.
• Smart CCTV integration: Leveraged the fibre backbone to support high-capacity CCTV, strengthening public safety and civic resilience.
• Economic growth & regeneration:
• Re-positioned Hainault Business Park as an investable hub for SMEs, digital, and creative industries.
• Drove local job creation across construction, telecoms, and downstream digital services.
• Increased housing value and reduced digital exclusion across social housing estates.
• Strategic legacy: Proved that with clear leadership, rigorous stakeholder management, and telecoms-grade delivery, fibre infrastructure becomes a lever for economic renewal, regeneration, and resilience across under-served parts of East London.

Attribution & governance
This cross-borough programme was funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and coordinated by the London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI). I led my borough’s participation and operational delivery within that pan-London framework, aligning information governance, housing operations, and resident engagement to LOTI’s model.

What the programme is
The project deployed IoT environmental sensors in social housing to generate actionable, real-time risk data on damp, mould and overheating, moving services from reactive complaints to preventative interventions. Formal outputs include a capital-wide evaluation and a winter follow-up.

Key facts (from the evaluation)

• 16 pilot boroughs, 155 sensors deployed (of 170 distributed) by Jan 2025; broader collaboration across ~20 boroughs.
• Most common use case: early risk identification; further use cases included root-cause diagnosis, resident engagement, and predictive maintenance.
• Benefits evidenced: earlier action, fewer unnecessary inspections, reduced repeat repairs, stronger tenant relationships; councils anticipate material financial savings at scale.

Why it matters
The LOTI/GLA evidence base shows sensors can shift councils to prevention, inform retrofit strategy/public health, and strengthen responses to legal/ombudsman scrutiny—when paired with clear alert playbooks, resident consent, and winter-period data.

My leadership contribution

• Led borough delivery and stakeholder liaison (housing, data/IG, public health, resident comms), ensuring operational workflows could act on alerts.
• Presented learning to GLA/LOTI forums and other local authorities, shaping business-case development for scale-up.

Source documents & further reading

Comprehensive Evaluation Report v1.02 (24 Feb 2025) — Internet of Things (IoT) Sensors for Damp and Mould(Will Bibby, Laurie Blair).

Winter Follow-Up Evaluation (Aug 2025) — lessons from winter deployment and scaling.

LOTI Project Overvihttps://loti.london/projects/pan-london-iot-damp-and-mould-project/?utm_source=chatgpt.comew / Resource Hub — background, objectives, borough participants, and materials.

External Coverage — UKAuthority article — sector media on the IoT damp & mould sensor project.

Data Protection Guidance (Sept 2024) — IG and privacy considerations for boroughs.

The UK’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) will be retired in January 2027, requiring all voice and telecare services to migrate to digital alternatives. Recognising this systemic risk early, I developed and led the strategic plan to safeguard critical services, protect vulnerable residents, and align with national resilience goals

Strategic Leadership

• Authored and presented the business case, securing recognition of the urgency and allocation of resources.
• Directed multi-disciplinary teams across Adult Social Care (ASC), Service Desk, Continuity, Compliance, IT, Comms, and PR — ensuring the transition was embedded into every service area.
• Planned and managed programme resources and budgets, aligning operational delivery with strategic priorities.
• Provided guidance and documentation to the GLA, supporting pan-London alignment and knowledge sharing.
• Led the internal programme team, embedding accountability and delivery discipline across all workstreams.

This was not only about preparing for the 2027 deadline — it was about establishing a governance model and cross-service operating framework that ensures the borough remains resilient as legacy systems are withdrawn and digital services become the default.