Leeds has long been a great place to work and live. From its excellent co-working opportunities to potential development of its transport links, the city is continuing to thrive. But this is just the beginning and tech hubs are part of the growth.
Now, Leeds has even been named among the top emerging tech hubs in the UK¦
Leeds: Better than London?
The technology sector is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing industries in the UK and across the world. With that in mind, many people would assume it’s based in London. However, research by TNT has found that it’s actually spread across a number of cities or, emerging tech hubs.
Leeds was ranked third in the top 10 emerging tech hubs in the UK, beating stiff competition from Liverpool, Manchester and even London. Reading and Bristol made up the top two, while Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford also featured among the high hitters.
What makes a good tech hub?
TNT’s research ranked tech hubs based on a number of criteria which formed their tech city index’:
- Number of existing tech businesses
- Number of people employed in tech jobs
- Overall employment rate
- Tech jobs advertised
- Rank for Engineering and Technology courses
- Start up births
- Start up survival rate beyond a year
- Start up survival rate beyond five years
- Average cost of grade A office space
- Estimated maximum mean download speed
Each of the UK’s 69 major cities was ranked for the above factors, with 1 for the highest-ranked. These scores were then accumulated to reveal the top ranked cities.
Consistent performance
While London was ranked first in more categories than any other city, it was let down by several other important factors. London tops the charts for the number of tech businesses, tech jobs advertised and people employed in tech jobs, but has a poor survival rate over both one and five years, for instance. Understandably, it’s also held back by the sky-high cost of office space in the capital.
In contrast, Leeds earnt third place with a strong performance in all categories. The city was in the top ten for the number of tech businesses, tech jobs advertised and people employed in them, along with the number of tech start ups, the cost of office space and the start-up survival rate over five years.
Looking at the bigger picture
Above all else, what this research shows is that businesses big and small should look at the bigger picture when considering the location for their start-up or enterprise. While some cities will excel in one area, Leeds offers so much value across the board that could help your tech business thrive.
As a team of cloud accountants in Leeds, we’ve seen first-hand how businesses can succeed in Leeds and helped everyone from start-ups to large corporations based in the city.
If you need any help with business planning, bookkeeping or cloud accounting, we’re always on hand to help. Contact our team for a friendly chat about your business.
