Tag Archives: Technology

TECH City

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The story so far

Following Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement on 4th November 2010 of the development of ‘Tech City,’ East London is set to be transformed into the British equivalent of Silicon Valley. The development of ‘Tech City’ is part of a Government programme to create new jobs, diversify the economy and support sustainable economic growth.

On announcing the programme the Prime Minister noted:

“Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. 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. I want to show you how we can get there.”

The Prime Minister’s announcement is indicative of the government’s commitment in developing the digital sector in East London, allocating £200million of equity finance for businesses with high growth potential and investing £200million in developing Technology and Innovation Centres. The governments review of UK Intellectual Property laws and introduction of Entrepreneur Visas drive to attract investment in ‘Tech City.’  Government plans already appear to be a success with Cisco pledging to invest over £310m in the project and  major online players  such as Google, Facebook and Intel already signed up to the scheme.

This will undoubtedly boost East London which already has one of the largest concentrations of small, fast- growing digital technology companies in Europe including:

- Last.fm – sold to CBS in 2007 for $280million

- Tweetdeck – award-winning social media browser

- Songkick – the largest global database of concerts in the world

- Dopplr – sold to Nokia for $22million

Issues

Tech City still has a number of barriers to overcome. The UK’s technology skills shortage has been an ongoing problem. Kristian Segerstrale, co-founder and chief executive of London based games firm Playfish describe a lack of experienced and specialised technologists in the UK ‘It’s a particular problem with technical roles, highly scalable consumer internet services that need a blend of commercial and technical knowledge. When we need people with hardcore, scalable service technology skills and a particular management expertise but it’s very hard to recruit for those in London. We have to import talent from Silicon Valley.’

The TGLP Skills Committee are focused on overcoming these barriers and work with the HEI sector, employers and the FE sector to identify opportunities to enhance skills in the local labour market in order to ensure there is a pool of highly skilled labour which can capitalise on the opportunities presented by the development of the digital gateway.

Prime Minister Announces New Technology Centre In Hackney

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This article is from the TGLP archive. It was originally posted on: 04/10/2010

The Thames Gateway London Partnership today wholeheartedly welcomed the Prime Minister’s plans to transform London’s East End into a world class technology centre. Speaking this morning in Shoreditch David Cameron pledged his government to creating a Silicon Valley style technology centre in East London.

Cameron’s announcement comes only days after the government highlighted the importance of the continued development of the London Thames Gateway in its White Paper on local economic growth. The paper recognised the Gateway as having significant growth potential and pushed for developments to drive forward investment and growth. Today’s announcement can be seen as a sign of the Government’s continuing commitment to follow through on this pledge.

The new technology centre will be located in the London Borough of Hackney which already houses the country’s largest grouping of creative industries. Among the businesses announced to be investing in the site are industry top guns Google, Facebook and Intel.

Speaking at the 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.”

The Thames Gateway London Partnership Chief Executive Ros Dunn said:

“The Government has sent a clear message in recent weeks that the development of the Thames Gateway is still a key priority. Today’s announcement builds upon Hackney’s existing position as the country’s top location for digital and creative business. Over 30% of the country’s creative industries are located in Hackney and now industry heavyweights like Google and Intel are understandably eager to join the fast growing business community. This clearly shows that Hackney and the London Thames Gateway has solidly established itself as an internationally recognised location for the creative and digital industries.”

  • The East London technology centre was announced by David Cameron on November 4th 2010.
  • According to 2008 figures Hackney houses 34.28% of the country’s Creative Industries. The Creative Industries are defined according to the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s guidelines.