David Cameron wants London to rival Silicon Valley

by Scott Bicheno on 4 November 2010, 10:36

Tags: UK Government

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Silicon implants

We hesitate to say it, and may well be disappointed in the long term, but the government seems to be doing something concrete to make the UK more competitive in the global tech market.

In a speech to a tech and entrepreneur audience today, the PM David Cameron will outline is ambition for the East End of London - from Old Street to the site of the 2012 Olympics - to be transformed into a ‘Tech City' to rival Silicon Valley.

If your first thought is that this just sounds like another lot of rhetorical hot air, join the club. But there does seem to be a bit of substance to this announcement. Not only will there be £200 million of finance for businesses and research outfits with potential, there will also be a new type of ‘entrepreneur visa' to encourage people to set up businesses in the UK.

Furthermore, a bunch of major US tech companies have already committed to open up offices and/or research centres in Tech City (surely a name with ‘silicon' in it would be better  - any suggestions - how about Silicon Square in reference to East Enders?). These include Intel, Google, Facebook and Cisco. Also the Silicon Valley bank will become established in the UK, while Qualcomm and McKinsey will provide consultancy.

"Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation," said the PM. "But there's no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world's great technology centres."

"For the past few weeks and months, we have had dozens of meetings with technology companies and venture capital investors from across the world... I have to say: the response has been overwhelming."

"The policies in this document set Britain on to the path of becoming the most attractive place in the world to start and invest in innovative technology companies. £200 million of equity finance for businesses with high growth potential. £200 million for new Technology and Innovation Centres - one of which could be in the Olympic Park.

"And today, I can announce two further proposals... we will create a new Entrepreneur Visa.  These Entrepreneur Visas will mean that if you have a great business idea, and you receive serious investment from a leading investor, you are welcome to set up your business in our country.

"The second new announcement I can make today is to do with intellectual property. The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain. The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States.

"Over there, they have what are called ‘fair-use' provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services. So I can announce today that we are reviewing our IP laws, to see if we can make them fit for the internet age. I want to encourage the sort of creative innovation that exists in America."

It all sounds quite promising, and as the likes of ARM, Imagination Technologies and Autonomy have shown, we are capable of creating world-class technology companies. Fingers crossed that this announcement does prove to be more than hot air.



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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If Cameron said he wants London to rival Silicon Valley, and I doubt if he was naive enough to have said quite that, then I'd say I want to win the Euro lottery roll-over, three times, achieve peace on Earth and eliminate world-wide poverty, find a cure for all cancer and the common cold and tour the nearest half dozen star systems on the USS Enterprise …. and to do it by Saturday week. And I have a better chance of getting what I want than London does of rivalling Silicon Valley.

Can we achieve a lot of technological improvements and innovations, and narrow the gap? Potentially, yeah, given enough money and the right infrastructure. But wait …. don't we have a “deficit reduction program” in place, something about “austerity measures”?


The quotes in that article did highlight one thing Cameron said that, if done correctly, would be a large step in the right direction, which is
“The second new announcement I can make today is to do with intellectual property. The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain. The service they provide depends on taking a snapshot of all the content on the internet at any one time and they feel our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation as it is in the United States.

”Over there , they have what are called ‘fair-use' provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services. So I can announce today that we are reviewing our IP laws, to see if we can make them fit for the internet age. I want to encourage the sort of creative innovation that exists in America."
The IP review done under Labour did make some proposals that would have been a damn good step (IMHO) but Labour fluffed it in the actual legislation.

It's about time IP law caught up with technology, and I don't just mean “fair use/dealing” rights being some kind of personal piracy charter, but it needs to reflect 21st century realities, not 19th Century ones.

But conversely, there's currently a row about whether the UK can get the researchers and scientific brains it needs past the implications of the proposed new immigration policy and cap. One (proposed) step forwards, but three back?
Saracen
If Cameron said he wants London to rival Silicon Valley, and I doubt if he was naive enough to have said quite that, then I'd say I want to win the Euro lottery roll-over, three times, achieve peace on Earth and eliminate world-wide poverty, find a cure for all cancer and the common cold and tour the nearest half dozen star systems on the USS Enterprise …. and to do it by Saturday week. And I have a better chance of getting what I want than London does of rivalling Silicon Valley.

That's the spirit! :surrender:
Didn't they already try this with ‘Silicon Glen’ to rejuvenate parts of Wales. Surely supporting/improving on what you have (if any of it is left - I don't actually know) would be better than trying to start from scratch.

Meanwhile, anything they do with a focus on ‘Nodnol’ would again be detracting from any tech-related efforts elsewhere in the country and become another part of the London-centric policy view. If a clean start is genuinely needed, there are other internationally recognized UK cities with good transport links that could benefit from this kind of boost instead. Cambridge (smaller but for the Uni- ties + rep), Edinburgh, Manchester, B'ham…
All good points, Tpyo.

I love the choice of username by the way. Made me laugh. :D
This is all good and well, but what about Silicon Fen?

The area around Cambridge is already one of the world leaders in technology development and - if memory serves - is the highest concentration of venture capital investment outside of Silicon Valley itself.

Why invest all of this money in developing something that will rival what we already have, instead of improving transport links up to the Fens and getting people to set up there?

Otherwise, I'm all for pumping in some money and getting these big companies to set up shops here. Science and research is what Britain is supposed to be good at, so I support anything that will help to put us back on the map for high-tech R&D.