UK tech hubs to thrive in 2021

The UK’s tech industry has remained resilient throughout the pandemic with certain cities continuing to emerge as leading tech hubs. Recruiters who are hiring now, need to know which locations are the most sought-after by candidates and develop a strategy to highlight what makes their own city appealing to top tech talent.

Recent research reveals that London is the most attractive city in the world to work. Nonetheless, our previous research on the UK tech hubs has revealed that other cities outside of London are emerging as top locations for tech workers and employers.

Let’s take a closer look at the tech hubs we believe will thrive after the pandemic:

UK tech hubs

London

According to the Tech Nation report 2021, London has received £8.6bn in tech investment in 2020 and saw a 9% rise in digital employment. As one of the largest start-upup ecosystems in the world, London has long been a hotbed for technology jobs.

There are currently 76,660 digital tech firms in the Greater London area, employing 589,730 workers. A previous CWJobs report on the Northern Powerhouse reported that 45% of IT decision makers would choose London as the city to launch their tech startup.

The city is also home to 55 unicorn companies, including TransferWise, Deliveroo and BenevolentAI, with a further 82 companies set to be valued at over $1 billion in the near-future. The city also offers good university technology courses, an abundance of co-working spaces and tech incubators, all of which continue to attract tech candidates to the city.

Manchester

Our UK tech hubs report finds that Manchester is the second most-favoured city for tech workers outside of London. Tech Nation reports that in 2020, the city received £58m in tech investment.

Manchester one of the UK’s largest technology hubs, was named the most likely location for new offices in our Northern Powerhouse research, confirming its importance to the UK tech industry.

Some of the city’s biggest tech subsectors include television, telecoms, biotech and ecommerce. It’s also home to Media City, which houses companies like the BBC, ITV, and Ericsson. It has the largest number of digital jobs outside of London with a digital sector worth £2.9 billion to the local economy.

Bristol

Tech Nation reports that Bristol received £339m in tech investment in 2020. The city is known for its development of robotics and autonomous vehicles and these two sectors alone create thousands of jobs across the city.

Bristol is home to two tech unicorns: OVO Energy, an energy supply company, and Graphcore, a semiconductor company.

Skills and experience in renewable technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, are therefore in high demand in Bristol.

Oxford

Oxford received £436m in tech investment in 2020. The city has a rich history of new technology startups and is recognised as a leader in the computing and health tech sectors.

Oxford is home to tech unicorns like Nanopore, a company that specialises in scalable DNA and RNA sequencing technology for biological research, healthcare and industrial applications.

Similarly, startups like Oxgene, that specialise in the discovery and manufacture of cell and gene therapies attract tech workers who want to be part of young, dynamic companies.

Cambridge

In 2020, Cambridge received £217m in tech investment and has been dubbed the UK’s next Silicon Valley. As a university city, Cambridge attracts tech candidates and businesses alike.

According to Information Age, the city experiences a 60% year-on-year increase in startups per one thousand people, compared to London.

Cambridge specialises in biotechnology and its Science Park is home to companies like Astra Zeneca and Johnson Matthey.

Hull

Tech Nation reports that Hull received a tech investment of £88m in 2020 – £30m more than Manchester. The city has a reputation for creating tech companies with a civic and social focus.

As such, the city has built a sustainable tech infrastructure and is an attractive location for tech candidates. In 2017, Hull was named City of Culture and continues to attract startups and corporate companies to its digital hub, C4DI.

The city is home to companies like Connexin, who specialise in Internet of Things and Bombyx PLM, a SaaS system for manufactured products.

Will location still be important for tech jobs in the future?

According to TechRepublic, 79% of tech workers (the equivalent of over one million people working in the sector), want to continue working from home for the majority of the week after the pandemic. As such, the distance between where tech workers live and where they work, may not be as important in the future.

CWJobs’ UK Tech Hubs report finds that 49% of tech workers would take a pay cut to be allowed to work from home and 66% would accept a job that was over two hours away if they could work remotely or flexibly.

From an employers’ perspective, this could have several benefits. Our report also reveals that 80% of IT decision makers believe remote working would increase productivity in their business. With fewer staff onsite, companies would have the opportunity to save money on office space and associated resources.

According to Deloitte’s Millennial Survey, organisations that embrace remote working increase employee retention rates. The survey of 8,000 millennial workers found that 45% intended to leave companies with the ‘least flexible work environments’ within two years^.

At CWJobs, our platform enables employers to screen questions to identify candidate preferences on location, remote working and commuting. This helps them find candidates with the most relevant skills, rather than those within the closest geographical area. Our programmatic ads also enable companies to target candidates in multiple locations across the UK.

How to attract top tech talent across the UK

 1. Focus on remote working opportunities

As a largely digitised industry, the tech sector inherently creates opportunities for employees to work outside of the office. Workplace flexibility is one of the top motivators for employees in tech, so recruiters should draw attention to remote working opportunities to attract a larger talent pool.

2. Showcase the benefits of each location

People who are willing to relocate for the right role want to know what the location has to offer in terms of lifestyle, cost of living, attractions, house prices, schools, etc. Recruiters can use the unique selling points of each location to encourage candidates to apply for roles.

 3. Offer relocation packages

Emerging tech hubs are attracting more businesses and tech talent than ever before due to their increasingly attractive jobs.

The 45-54 age group of IT decision makers is the most likely to relocate to the countryside to work remotely

76% of 25-35 year old tech workers are willing to compromise on location if they were to secure their dream job

As such, tech recruiters can respond to these priorities by working with hiring managers to offer attractive relocation packages. This type of incentive typically includes financial help, covering logistics like moving costs, legal fees, travel costs, and temporary accommodation. They can be a valuable recruitment tool and demonstrate to potential candidates that the company values top talent and takes care of its employees.

 4. Outline employee benefits

Over and above relocation packages, tech workers are also drawn to the benefits that they’ll receive once they settle into their new role at a company. Recruiters can attract and retain top talent by highlighting what perks candidates will receive as employees.

 5. Map out clear progression plans

The tech sector is ever-evolving and candidates expect an insight into what the future of their role might look like. They want to know how their career can progress and what other avenues could be open to them in the future.

Recruiters can attract more candidates by being transparent about what progression looks like in the organisation. For example, a junior developer role might have the potential to turn into a senior development role. The candidate may then have the opportunity to become a lead developer, and eventually, a chief technology officer.

 6. Highlight training and upskilling opportunities

As training throughout their careers is seen as highly important to almost all tech workers (94%), robust programmes can improve employee retention and satisfaction. Companies that encourage employees to map out their own training programmes (especially to master skills that are considered in high-demand like cloud or cyber security) are seen as attractive by today’s tech workforce.

When it comes to knowing what skills will benefit a company, 56% of IT decision makers consider cloud as the top skills when recruiting, and 54% chose cyber security. Our research also finds that Greater London has the highest percentage of cloud specialists per tech worker in the country. Recruiters could, therefore, focus on this area to fill cloud jobs elsewhere in the UK.

In the tech industry, it’s especially important for workers to keep up-to-date with emerging trends. Having the opportunity to work with the latest cloud software, data analytics systems, or context-aware behavioural analytics in cyber security, could be a big draw for top talent.