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North Tyneside tech community grows by a fifth

North Tyneside has been named amongst the top five fastest growing tech clusters in the UK, according to the latest KPMG/Markit Tech Monitor UK Survey.

The Northern local authority areas were only behind Warwick (28 per cent) and Hackney (25 per cent) in seeing the fastest rises in tech sector enterprises since 2014. Tied with North Lanarkshire, North Tyneside saw its tech community grow by a fifth (20 per cent).

The pace of growth is also reflected across the regions. The North East witnessed the fastest expansion in the number of tech enterprises outside of London in 2015 with 9.5 per cent year on year growth.

Yorkshire and Humber ranked fifth in the UK with 8.5 per cent increase against last year, while the North West in eighth position achieved a 7.2 per cent rise in the number of tech firms.

However, compared to other regions, the North still fares below average by concentration of businesses from the sector. The North West region ranked sixth with tech companies accounting for 6.4 per cent of the regional economy, while Yorkshire and Humber and the North East are joint ninth with 5.5 per cent, compared to a national average of 7.7 per cent.

In the North West, Warrington remains the top tech hub in the region, as well as the whole of the North, with 9.8 per cent of its business community hailing from tech, well above the national average. Meanwhile, Stockton-on-Tees leads the North East with 7.4 and York tops Yorkshire and Humber with 7.7 per cent.

Commenting on the Tech Monitor UK Survey, Graham Pearce, director and head of TMT at KPMG in the North, said: “The North is home to a great community of tech businesses and the growth that we have seen over the past year shows that there is more to the sector than the M4 corridor and ‘silicon-round-a-bout’.

“Rotherham and North Tyneside are just two areas that have shown impressive expansion, and coupled with other clusters in the likes of Warrington and York, the North is building a tech sector to be proud of. But, with the industry still punching below its weight on a national level, there is a lot more work to be done in encouraging new Northern start-ups and attracting established enterprises to the region.”