Belfast, Dundee and Exeter the most likely to become leading UK tech hubs

Credit:  Brian Morrison

Belfast, Dundee and Exeter are the most likely cities to become leading UK tech hubs this year, according to a new study that experts say should be used to steer Britain’s levelling-up agenda.

Industry group Tech Nation compiled figures on the ideal ratio of seed stage, early growth and late growth companies in UK cities, discovering it was best to have half the companies be at the earliest seed stage, a third at "early growth" and the remainder at "late-stage growth", where they were raising significant amounts of cash.

It said London, Manchester and Cambridge were the highest performing cities for meeting this ratio, with all three already established hubs. Those with the most potential to turn into tech hubs this year, however, were Belfast, Dundee and Exeter.

Dr George Windsor, head of insights at Tech Nation, said: "The Scale Ratio tells us about the growth potential of the UK’s tech hubs and provides the levelling up agenda with new evidence to boost regional ecosystem development."

Digital minister Caroline Dinenage, meanwhile, said the figures "show the resilience and potential of the UK’s regional tech hubs which continue to create new investment and jobs".

Government ministers have stressed the need to "level-up" the UK, although separate research this week suggested the task had been made four times harder by the pandemic.

Earlier this week, the study from think tank Centre for Cities showed that the number of those claiming unemployment in the north and Midlands, that the Government needed to get back into work to achieve parity with the South East, had quadrupled since the pandemic hit.

Technology is understood to be at the centre of government plans to drive growth, with Rishi Sunak saying last year that "start-ups and innovative firms are one of our great economic strengths, and they will help spur our recovery from the pandemic".