Birmingham losing out to Manchester and Merseyside for encouraging innovation

BIRMINGHAM is losing out to Manchester and Merseyside when it comes to encouraging innovation, a new report has suggested.

The first-ever nationwide UK Local Innovation Index, compiled by the Centre for Economics & Business Research and Johnston Press, shows that, after London, Greater Manchester is the best place in the country for providing the right combination of ingredients for a thriving innovation ecosystem, followed by Merseyside and Greater Birmingham.

The findings also point to West Yorkshire and Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, currently mid-table on the Innovation Index, as having enormous potential as innovation hubs of tomorrow.

Colm Sheehy, Senior Economist, CEBR, said: “This is the first time that a study of local innovation has been undertaken in the UK. Our aim has been to capture innovative activity across the UK in a more holistic way than has been the case for national level indices of innovation.

“Our UK Local Innovation Index encompasses the marketing, networking and organisational innovations that occur across all industries. The research has revealed innovation that’s not limited by geography.”

In the Midlands, the survey concludes that Birmingham is the top location in the West Midlands for start-up firms. The so-called ‘Silicon Canal’ is recognised as Birmingham’s start-up tech community.

The East Midlands is top for innovative enterprises in UK, reflecting innovation hotspots such as Nottingham.

Meanwhile, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire are ranked the best for employment in high-tech sectors in the region. University areas of Coventry and Warwick are said to have fostered the start-up of over 130 high-tech companies, together employing more than 2,000 people.

The CEBR study brings together 11 discrete data sources under four over-arching pillars – Innovative People, R&D and Technology, Innovative Outputs, and Ideas & Inventions – to offer the broadest possible perspective on innovation across the UK. It also illustrates the extent to which towns and cities outside London are shaping the thriving ‘innovation economy’.

Separately, the study identifies the strongest emerging ‘innovation ecosystems’ based on seven key innovation ingredients: connectivity, talent density, living costs, culture & community, universities, government investment and transport mobility. It reveals that some areas currently registering a mid-score on the innovation index, score highly on the facilitating factors, highlighting these areas as emerging innovation hotspots and the potential powerhouses of tomorrow.