Thriving hub for tech-based businesses officially opened

Lancaster’s hub for tech-based businesses has been officially opened by the Government minister for small business and the leader of Lancashire County Council.

Since April this year Fraser House at White Cross Business Park has already become home to more than 20 companies which value the opportunity to collaborate and grow offered by the building’s co-working space, modular office accommodation, and high speed broadband.

County Cllr Phillippa Williamson, leader of Lancashire County Council, welcomed Paul Scully MP, Minister for London and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets), to Fraser House this week when they cut a ribbon to mark its official opening.

Fraser House is owned by Lancashire County Developments, Lancashire County Council’s economic development company, which has invested more than £1.5m in the site to create a place where the county’s fast growing tech companies can come together as a community and benefit from each other’s expertise.

Mr Scully said: “The technology sector is continuing to grow and create new opportunities across the UK, playing a key role in our drive to level up across the country.

“Fraser House is perfectly equipped to attract emerging talent and nurture the next generation of pioneers, entrepreneurs and businesses in Lancaster, so we can continue to unleash innovation and build upon our reputation as world leaders in this sector.”

County Cllr Williamson, said: “The digital economy is not always the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Lancashire, but it’s already one of the county’s greatest strengths, employing 36,000 people, and something that we as the county council are working hard to foster.

“Here in Lancaster there is a cluster of growing tech companies, and we have developed Fraser House in recognition that there is a real demand for a creative space where they can work, network, and develop ideas together.

“With everything from language analysis specialists, to coders and digital marketers, to software engineers, I’m very pleased to see how quickly the co-working space at Fraser House has become established as a hive of friendly and productive collaboration.”

Will Maden, from Miralis Data & Fuuse, which offers tech solutions to the transport and logistics sector, said: “Fraser House has allowed us to scale rapidly as we exited the coronavirus lockdown, providing a purpose-made work environment that is ideal for fast growing SME’s in the tech and digital sector.”

Fraser House offers three floors of high quality, modern working space for tech-based companies, with its ground floor offering a great place to work and network in a large, modern co-working space, with small modular offices and meeting rooms also available.

The upper floors have large self-contained office space currently occupied by two of the sector’s fastest growing tech companies Relative Insight and Case to Answer.

Local partners, including Lancaster University and Lancaster City Council, alongside local business owners, have helped to co-design the space to ensure it responds to the needs of the community.

White Cross Business Park is already home to several tech and digital companies including Mpirical, Lina energy and Milliamp. The businesses already based at Fraser House specialise in areas including digital marketing, e-commerce, graphic design, software engineering, language analysis, legal tech development, coding, web design, 5G training and the electech cluster.