Tide turning on UK tech innovation?
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Anthony Plewes
After years of gnashing teeth about the brain drain of innovators out of the UK, it appears that the tide may be turning. A recent article in Reuters claims that international technology entrepreneurs are in fact choosing the UK, with London and Cambridge proving particularly popular. It quotes someone from the OECD saying that the “UK is now well placed in Europe on a number of indexes measuring factors like taxes, red tape, the dynamics of internal markets and how they are connected on the world stage, and the ability to access a qualified workforce.” The article also points to a review by the Legatum Institute, that places the UK 2nd in the world in “Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. Good news indeed, particularly with our esteemed bankers all threatening to take their expense accounts to Geneva.
Mark McClure says on January 25th, 2010 at 2:26 pm :
I doubt that many bankers will follow through on those recent rebellious rumblings, considering the financial fun still to be found doing the Lord’s work in lively London! Much more interesting will be the belt-tightening required of ordinary citizens once the general election promises have faded from memory.
Still, if the public sector purse strings get severely shortened, it might inspire a new wave of entrepreneurial endeavour in the high technology sector. There is certainly a qualified UK workforce but how exactly they fit into whatever global wage arbitration cost models drives inward investment these days is a fascinating question…
Anthony Plewes says on January 29th, 2010 at 11:37 am :
Even if manufacturing in the UK is still stuttering, it good to see that there is plenty of scope for innovation in services. Look at ARM, their innovations were vital for the explosion of mobile technology, but it was all done in intellectual property alone.