Newbury rated as one the UK's best emerging tech-hubs

Latest reports single out the town for its tech footprint and strong economy

NEWBURY has been identified as one of the UK’s emerging ‘tech hubs’, according a report.

Research carried out by TNT Direct has placed the town in the top 10 ‘cities’ where technology is expanding.

The report analysed different factors relating to the tech sector across the UK’s 69 major centres.

This included the number of tech businesses in each city area, the number of people employed by these businesses and the average one-year survival rate for tech start-ups.

Broadband speed and the number of engineering and technology courses available in the city were also analysed.

Neighbouring Reading came out on top, followed by Bristol and Leeds in second and third place respectively.

Newbury was ranked eighth and scored the highest for its overall employment rate, as well as its estimated maximum mean download speed.

But of the 10 cities included in the list, the town came out bottom for the number of tech jobs advertised.

The findings come as Newbury was named as the top tech town in the UK in a report released earlier this year, conducted by Tech Nation.

Figures showed it beat Reading and London in terms of ‘digital density’, which measures digital tech specialisation in clusters compared to density in the UK.

Areas that are home to larger tech companies, the report found, resulted in a digital tech density that is around 15 times higher than the UK average.

Newbury’s tech footprint was the best-rated in the country, largely owing to Vodafone and Micro Focus, both of which have UK headquarters in the town.

And there was more good news this week after yet another recent report singled out the strength of Newbury’s economy.

The Talk of the Town report, published by the Centre for Cities, highlights the typical economic links between cities and their smaller neighbouring towns.

Newbury is deemed to be an exceptional case, as it does not rely on these links as towns of a similar size do.

Commenting on the findings, West Berkshire Council’s executive member for economic development James Fredrickson (Con, Victoria) said: “This is great news for Newbury and it reinforces exactly what we already know about our local economy.

“Newbury has a wide range of businesses, a well-educated population and is a great place to live so it’s no wonder that we have this level of economic resilience locally.

“As we develop our economic development strategy in the coming months, we will be considering how we can boost our economy still further so that even more residents and businesses can benefit from this success.”