COMMENT You can’t say I’m not out on the front foot. Tireless in my push for growth, having had my Damascene conversion to the potential to save our nation with life sciences. Now the UK Innovation Corridor, which I chair, is gearing up to join the UK delegation at Expo Real in Munich next month.
The UK Innovation Corridor is proud to be part of the 100-strong UK delegation representing the UK’s investment potential. For those who don’t know, Expo Real is massive – it’s Europe’s largest international property and investment trade fair, attracting more than 40,000 delegates from 70 countries. Speaking personally, it will only be my second ever showing at Expo, even though – being what my old dad would call a flibbertigibbet – I’ve been to MIPIM some 25 times.
The last time I attended Expo I found it somewhat more serious than MIPIM – which didn’t suit me so well, since I do value a sense of humour rather highly – but it was clear that it is where you go if you want to access the “big money” (forgive this technical term). A bit Teutonic, financially oriented and serious-minded, perhaps, but then I guess large-scale economic growth is a serious business.
Consistent outperformance
So what’s our story then? Well, pretty compelling in my view. With annual growth rates at twice the UK average of the past decade, the Innovation Corridor consistently outperforms comparator regions in Europe and the US. It is a much undersung narrative. Our strategy is to build on the global success of Cambridge and London – as two of Europe’s top 10 investment locations – by facilitating growth over the length of the Corridor. This growth will be sustainable over the medium and longer term, but with immediate gains for the UK economy.
But it isn’t only about London and Cambridge. We have a welter of opportunities in “the bit in the middle”. If you want to see what can be achieved with the right civic leadership, you need only look at our poster child, Stevenage. With local government at borough and county levels working in partnership with the local enterprise partnership and a proactive private sector, the original “new town” is attracting significant investment capital and is becoming the location of choice for international science companies such as Autolus Therapeutics, Airbus and GSK. With a fair wind, Harlow will follow suit in short order, having amassed all the ingredients for success.
The UK Innovation Corridor is a true coalition of the willing. We bring together local government, private business, universities and colleges in a bottom-up strategic partnership to achieve a collective ambition of long-term sustainable growth which is of global significance. We embrace a “total place” (now, where have I heard that term before?) approach to development, integrating economic development, skills, land use planning, housing, infrastructure, transport and communities. And with the development of our investment platform, we intend to further develop capability to utilise all of our assets as multipliers for economic growth.
Our moment
With the government making the right noises about economic growth, this is our moment. The key is to do this at scale, since the word is that the big fish at Expo won’t get out of bed for under a billion total investment. This means that our unique ability to work across a number of local authorities comes into its own. The likes of a small district authority off the M11 might have a couple of projects worth a few tens of millions apiece, but when we aggregate these together, we make it an attractive package for serious players across our geography.
Our joint mission will be to position the UK in a bid to attract and engage investors looking to deploy large-scale capital and build international investment partnerships to benefit the whole of the UK. Delivered in partnership with the expert team at UK Cities and Partners, the UK Innovation Corridor plans to be front and centre in promoting our tech ecosystem and commercial strength.
With (a tiny bit of) support from government, but mainly utilising our own wits and assets – and always, always working collegiately with other pan-regional partnerships – the 20-year vision is for the UK Innovation Corridor to become one of the top-five global knowledge regions, alongside Silicon Valley, Boston’s Route 128 and the North Carolina Research Triangle.
The capability and track record of tech and life sciences industry in the Corridor is second to none, as I said to my audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the other day (and, blimey, nobody quibbled). We have nothing short of a unique opportunity to build one of the world’s top-five global knowledge regions here in the UK.
Yes, indeed, I am out on the front foot.
Jackie Sadek is chair of the UK Innovation Corridor and of the EG public sector forum
Click here to download the UK Innovation Corridor’s Growth Plan 2024-2030
Share your feedback
