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UK "tech city" doubles number of start-ups

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 26 Jul 2011 at 08:51

The UK's plans to build a Silicon Valley in East London have already helped double the number of start-ups, according officials behind the plans.

Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of the Tech City Investment Organisation, told the Wall Street Journal that the number of start-ups had "at least doubled" since the Government announced the plans last year.

That means something like 1,000-1,500 new jobs

He claimed that last year, the area - stretching from Old Street's so-called Silicon Roundabout further east to Stratford - had 170 tech companies at work.

“I can tell you that it has more than doubled in less than eight months,” he told the paper. "Every one of those companies is perhaps two or three people, working in low-cost shared workspaces, making a product, selling a service. That means something like 1,000-1,500 new jobs."

Van Der Kleij said official numbers about the success of the programme would be announced soon.

At the time of its launch, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres.”

Earlier this year, the Tech City plans were criticised by a local MP, who complained no progress has been made drawing big IT firms to the area, but the Government coughed up £1 million in May to offer funding to new companies.

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User comments

Why London?

The city is already a big business center and UK industry is already heavily concentrated there (to the point where it hurts everyone not living in that city). Surely it make much more sense to put tax incentives into a city where employment and industry is needed and concentrate on building industry there? Say Liverpool or Newcastle...

By adriancd on 26 Jul 2011

Say Liverpool or Newcastle...

Or maybe Cambridge, perhaps?
If they really want the UK to have a 'Great Technology Centre(TM)' why not put the funding into a place that's already building a strong presence in the sector?

Oh, wait, that'd be outside the M25, though...

By greemble on 26 Jul 2011

That's what Capital Cities are for...

For global technology vendors, who need to attract the top people in the world, access the best finance, biggest and densest customer populations...
Why would a well run business go anywhere else than the capital city of their country?
I'm from Newcastle, by the way.

By widgy2 on 26 Jul 2011

Liverpool has its Innovation Park and Newcastle has the Science City and there are others around the country. Maybe the issue is that they are not as good at generating awareness of themselves as the Scilicon Fen, Glen and Roundabout are.
Perhaps PC Pro could do some articles on innovations from around the regions?

By drog_uk on 26 Jul 2011

London for its sheer size...

I can understand when people from outside London moan about hearing 'yet more' investment going into the capital, but I really don't think they take into account the sheer scale of the place when asking why things 'always' go to London.

Newcastle has a Metropolitan population of approx 275,000 people, Liverpool about 435,000 people, whereas London has about 7,825,000.

Does London receive more than 18 times the investment of Liverpool, or more than 28 times the investment of Newcastle? I sincerely doubt it.

Not everyone in London is rich, and the capital probably has more unemployed people than the ENTIRE population of either of the above cities, possibly higher than both combined.

And that doesn't even take into account the many logistical benefits of being in the capital as widgy already pointed out.

By Mr_John_T on 26 Jul 2011

@drog_uk -- Good idea. Might make a good infographic for the magazine...

By Nicole_Kobie on 26 Jul 2011

@Mr_John_T it's not really about who's getting their fair share (I live in London BTW) or the number of unemployed to me. It's more about understanding which areas of the country do not have a sustainable economy and which areas are over crowded.

Quite a few of the big cities in the North have work forces that are dominated by government jobs (many of them created to prevent mass unemployment, I read that over 85% of jobs in Newcastle at the end of last year were government jobs), the government is in a situation where it feels that it needs to make cuts right now, it should be targeting these areas so that it can create these jobs and remove the government ones that it can't afford.

London is also clearly overcrowded if you live there and have to use the public transport. There was a report in the news yesterday that gave government figures that expect 30% of the work force in London to work from home during 2012 to cope with the surge of people arriving for the Olympics. That's clearly not going to happen and I dread to think what it's going to be like next year as I live bang in the middle of it all.

My opinion obviously, but I think the government should be trying to attract people to other cities for these two reasons.

By adriancd on 26 Jul 2011

Missing The Point

Are we in danger of missing the point here?

Surely the question is not about who & where receives the most nvestment or even who make the biggest noise about receiving it.

The real issue is how UK plc attracts investment needed for a sustainable economy for the benefit of ALL 60 million of its citizens.

Neither unsustainably overpopulated nor economically shaky pockets will help.

Could enabling rapid transport of talent & human capital between the two by investing in digital (NGA broadband) & transport (HS2) infrastructure be the answer?

Sadly, such investments require a longer term view that most politicians are reluctant to make, & most London-centric media are reluctant to report.

Why? Could it be that concentrating politicians & media in one location is like giving Londoners a loud hailer to policy makers directing investment?

Meanwhile disaffected rumblings from regions which are home to the remaing 50-odd million Brits goes unreported.

By MTock on 27 Jul 2011