​Helsingborg, Sweden, invests SEK 250 million in welfare solutions for the future

The City Council in Helsingborg has decided to invest SEK 250 million (just over EUR 23 million) in H22, a welfare solution for the future. This is an investment in innovation and the development of new, smarter and more efficient ways to solve the challenges of tomorrow. 

Short background

Over the course of the last few years the City of Helsingborg has received a number of awards. Sweden’s IT municipality, Quality municipality of the year, Growth municipality of the year and three years in a row Sweden’s Environment municipality, to mention a few.

All the same Helsingborg, like other municipalities in Sweden, faces great challenges. The number of children and elderly is increasing compared to the working population which means the city’s expenses are rising faster than its income. At the same time, expectations on the public sector continue to increase. Citizens want simpler, faster and more flexible service. The challenge going forward is to offer public service that is as good, or better, as today but at a lower cost.

This equation can only be solved by changing how we work and finding smarter solutions. We need to get rid of the things that create little value, develop more efficient methods and create room for testing and developing new welfare solutions.

In short, we need to save money while also investing in the future.

Briefly on the investment

The investment is financed through dividends amounting to SEK 250 million paid by the Port of Helsingborg, a wholly owned subsidiary to the City of Helsingborg. Out of this money, 118 million (approx. EUR 11 million) will go to a city expo: H22 – A Smarter City. The remaining money will go to the city’s committees where they will be used for testing and developing better and more efficient welfare solutions over the course of the next three years. These solutions should preferably be developed in collaboration with industry, academia, and citizens – and, if possible, across organizational boundaries within the city. The level of ambition should be high enough that the results can be presented at the city expo in 2022.

H22 – A Smarter City will take place in Helsingborg sometime between May and July 2022. It will be a city expo that invites the world to Helsingborg to share experiences and questions around smart and sustainable urban development. With H22 we’re putting the human element front and center by examining the city from three perspectives:

• Quality of Life: About life in the city and between houses. About planning and building the urban environments of the future with a central focus on human well-being.
• Innovative urban development: About utilizing the possibilities of digitalization and automation to plan and build smarter and more sustainable cities. About interfaces, design and architecture as part of that development.
• City governance: About leadership, decision-making and enabling in successful urban development. About citizen involvement, co-creation and fast changes in combination with long-term sustainability.

The city expo H22 will be a powerful tool to help the city change and grow. Partly because it gives the organization a clear and inspiring target to work towards, and partly because it opens up opportunities for new collaborations across both industrial and national boundaries.

Conclusion 

The pace of development is moving so quickly today that municipalities often struggle to keep up. Old approaches, methods and solutions often drive costs and the full potential of digitalization is rarely tapped into. In order to handle the tougher economic conditions that lie ahead we must invest in developing new and more efficient ways to offer welfare service. Apart from that, we and our municipal colleagues across the globe need to get better at planning and building cities in which both the people and environment can thrive.

For this reason, the City Council of Helsingborg has now made it possible for all parts of the organization to find new, smarter and more efficient ways to solve the problems of today and realize the opportunities of tomorrow.

A very broad political majority in Helsingborg supports this investment in welfare solutions for the future, as is the Swedish Royal Court; Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden has formalized her support by becoming the patron of H22 – A Smarter City.

Find out more: http://h22.se