
A so-called war of the tech cities was declared at the start of 2015, at which time it was revealed that an increasing number of job vacancies in IT were becoming available beyond the confines of the capital.
To complement this, salaries outside of London are also becoming more competitive, with Cambridge, Birmingham and Glasgow named as contenders, while recruiters also pitch a better quality of life as a sweetener. However, while there is life beyond the borders of the Big Smoke, London’s Silicon Roundabout has the densest population of tech businesses in the UK, according to a study from estate agency Stirling Ackroyd ? eight times more than closest rival Manchester and its Silicon Mill. ?At the bright heart of Britain?s technology industry, there?s an entrepreneurial startup spirit to the Old Street area that?s creating its own gravitational force,? said Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd. “Social media is the Bloomberg of the 21st century, HTML is our new lingua franca, and Shoreditch is fast becoming the Canary Wharf of the 2020s.” There’s often talk of a corporate battle between the UK and the US, but apparently there is a greater need for businesses outside of London to launch an attack on the capital. Jack Hidary, an entrepreneur and Google adviser, previously spoke to Real Business and offered key American traits UK companies can embrace. ?The window to dominate your market is smaller than you think,? he said. ?I find that American companies are very aggressive in their effort to go and dominate their sector because they know the number one in the sector tends to monopolise the capital and attention in the space ? it sucks up the air in the room.? With that in mind, tech hubs beyond London may be well placed to take hold of that. Other findings from Stirling found Silicon Roundabout is 16 times more packed than the Birmingham area of the Silicon Canal, 17 times more crammed that the Silicon Pier in Brighton and 20 times busier than the Silicon Gorge of Bristol.Read more on London?s tech industry:
- The birth of Tech.London: How IBM benefits from backing ?Type A? London tech startups
- London takes the lead in the European tech race
- London tech investments at record high with 66 per cent growth
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