These are the UK’s 17 fastest growing cities for tech jobs (spoiler – London’s missed the top spot)
Looking for a job in tech? It might not be worth sticking around the capital – a new report has suggested the place to be could be Bournemouth.
TheCityUK's Enabling Growth Across the UK report, which looks at how finance hubs outside London can flourish, shows London is no longer the UK's fastest-growing tech hub.
In fact, it's in third place, after Bournemouth and Poole, which grew 212 per cent between 2014 and 2015, and Liverpool, which grew 119 per cent.
Inner London, by contrast, grew 92 per cent – although with almost 252,000 people working in the sector in the capital, it is still by far the sector's biggest employer, accounting for about a third of tech jobs in the UK.
That's four times more jobs than the next-biggest tech hub, Bristol and Bath, which makes up just under 61,700 jobs.
This map, by Statista, shows how fast each city is growing.
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The report also argued financial centres outside the capital are vital in creating growth in the UK's regions. Regional financial centres make up 1.5m of the UK's 2.2m financial services jobs, adding £176bn to the UK economy, it suggested.
Overall, 21 towns and cities across the UK have more than 10,000 people working in the financial services industry, with Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester all playing host to more than 30,000 jobs.
HSBC has already unveiled plans to move 1,000 jobs from Canary Wharf to Birmingham – but the report argued regions have the opportunity to encourage finance firms to move thousands of middle- and back-office roles outside London.
"Strong regional financial centres like Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham boost the attractiveness of London as a global financial centre," said Miles Celic, chief executive of TheCityUK.
"Maintaining this ecosystem is critical to ensuring the UK remains a world-leading place to do business."
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