Manchester UK's tech capital After London

Manchester remains UK's tech capital outside London, city council's leader Sir Richard Leese claims.

22:22 04 February 2019

City council’s leader Sir Richard Leese said that Manchester remains the undisputed UK’s tech capital outside London as the demand for office space in the city continues to increase.

 

He said: “I think the biggest taker for space for at least three years now has been the tech sector, and the property market is no longer being solely driven by major corporates in their requirements for new space every so often.

 

“Clearly there are some major space takers within the digital sector, so Booking.com, Amazon’s new office, JLR’s digital team and so on, but also there are vast amounts of small or medium sized companies that want a different sort of space.

 

“They want more flexible space, they want flexible terms and that is leading to, I think, a very different sort of market.

 

Affordable office space in Manchester, as well as ease of access to road networks, rail connections and airports was always going to be a big draw for the city.

 

“Alongside the office accommodation they’ve got, they also want amenities, they want other assets around that give them the sort of qualitative working life they want.”

 

“Manchester is, outside of London, the leader in tech, and indeed over the last couple of years has been one of the fastest growing cities in Europe as far as tech is concerned.”