Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Visits MK:Smart

Milton Keynes South MP Iain Stewart and Conservative Council Group Leader Cllr Edith Bald welcomed Amber Rudd to the Open University to show off the Smart City Project currently taking place across the City.

The Secretary of State met with MK:Smart, which is a £16M three-year Smart City initiative involving a consortium of local, national and international partners, which sees Milton Keynes benefit from a £8M Higher Education Funding Council for England Catalyst grant. MK:Smart is developing innovative solutions to tackle demand and utilisation issues associated with the city’s key transport, water and energy infrastructures.

Cllr Edith Bald said: “I was delighted to welcome Amber Rudd to Milton Keynes today and show off what great work we are doing as a smart city. There is so much potential here using data to help to inform and transform the way we do things, what is essential now is to move from research into action on the ground”.

Cllr Bald added, “Like many Council’s Milton Keynes is good at writing strategy and reports, there are loads of these and it’s often the easy bit. What I want to see, if the Conservatives win in May, is a shift from talking and writing to action. That will be my focus.”

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change commented, “It was great to meet with the MK:Smart team and find out all about their work. There is amazing research and real innovative ideas coming out of it. I hope collaboratively we can see those ideas become a reality and help to solve the challenges a growing City like Milton Keynes faces.”