City’s tech and digital sector is worth £2.9bn
NATIONALLY, THE TECH SECTOR CURRENTLY EMPLOYS 1.6 MILLION PEOPLE AND IS WORTH £97BN TO THE ECONOMY
MANCHESTER’S digital sector is worth £2.9bn to the local economy according to the latest Tech Nation report.
The most comprehensive analysis of the UK’s digital tech industries to date, Tech Nation 2017 underlines the role digital tech businesses are playing in boosting economies across the country.
Manchester has the fourth largest tech cluster in the UK, after London, Reading, and Bristol & Bath respectively.
The report also credits Manchester as having the largest agglomeration of digital jobs (62,653) outside of London. It goes on to say how the city’s three universities have attracted big names including LateRooms and Auto Trader to the city, while according to GP Bullhound, 28 per cent of the 50 fastest growing digital tech companies in the North are located in Manchester.
MediaCityUK, home to the BBC and ITV Granada, draws in yet more talent while Manchester Science Partnerships’ Central Campus alone is home to more than 170 companies in the life science, healthtech, biotech, ICT, digital and creative sectors.
Elsewhere, The Sharp Project, SpacePortX and Innospace Manchester all provide space for digital tech entrepreneurs, while Rise Manchester hosts many local startups.
Last year, the city also made it to the top 20 in the European Digital City Index for starting and scaling a digital tech business.
Two new accelerators, Wayra and Ignite, were launched, while Manchester council awarded two £2m grants for the creation of two new technology hubs.
Looking to the suture, Mi-IDEA, a new facility for tech startups and entrepreneurs is soon to open, while the £235m Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation is expected to open in 2019.
Nationally, the report highlights how tech workers in the UK are paid on average 44% more than non-tech workers.
The average advertised salary for digital-tech jobs has now reached £50,663 a year, compared with £35,155 for the average non-digital salary.
The digital economy, it says, is one of the UK economy’s success stories, growing at twice the rate of the wider economy and key to boosting UK productivity. The sector currently employs 1.6 million people and is worth £97bn to the economy, that’s up 30% in five years.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said: “Earlier this month Government published the UK Digital Strategy which will help secure the UK’s place as a world-leading digital economy, attracting the best and brightest of global talent and making Britain the best place to start and grow a digital business.”