Boris Johnson wants to take over Tech City
BORIS Johnson will this morning launch a bid to take direct control of Tech City Investment Organisation, the development body responsible for promoting high-tech investment in East London, City A.M. can reveal.
The mayor will also seek the construction of a new science institute in the Olympic Park and seek to include a proposed cell therapy centre in the plans.
“We are seeing incredible things starting to happen in Tech City and the area known as Silicon Roundabout. But there has never been a better moment for City Hall to take a strategic lead,” the mayor is expected to say at this morning’s InnoTech Summit.
Mike Butcher, co-founder of TechHub, a shared workspace near Old Street roundabout, broadly welcomed the news: “What we’re talking about here is beating the drum for technology in London – bringing in investors and supporting the organic creation of companies in the area.”
But he said that politicians should provide more incentives to invest in the district: “We would love to see this area given special status. There was disappointment that the Tech City area was not made an enterprise zone.”