Peterborough tipped to be one of the UK's tech hubs of the future

The city has been ranked in fifth place among the top 10 cities, with a population of under 200,000, predicted to dominate the UK’s tech scene over the next few years.

The survey has been produced by Joblift, an online search engine for more than one million jobs, which places the university cities of Cambridge, Oxford, Guildford and Warwick in the top four places.

But it says Peterborough, with its new hi-tech Innovation Lab, located in the Allia Future Business Centre, in London Road, is leading the way for cities without a university.

Joblift says Peterborough scores highly for the total number of tech jobs posted - 10,564 - and the percentage (25 per cent) these vacancies held in the entire job market in the last 12 months.

A Joblift spokesman said: “When it comes to technology, London, Manchester and Birmingham dominate the job market.

“However, growth in these cities is slow and the competition increasingly high.

“With this in mind, Joblift has analysed which smaller UK cities and towns are set to become Britain’s tech hubs of tomorrow.

“By analysing the top 50 locations in terms of the number of tech vacancies over the last 12 months, Joblift has

ranked the top 10 places, with under 200,000 citizens, predicted to dominate the UK’s tech scene in the coming years.”

Paul Hughes, Allia’s director of Enterprise Support, said: “We launched the Allia Innovation Lab (a design and prototyping centre for start-ups) in Peterborough in 2016 because we recognised the potential of the city, its innovators and entrepreneurs.

“Peterborough is the home to a cluster of distinguished and innovative engineering companies, Peterborough City Council has invested in digital and Smart Cities infrastructure and there are plans to open a university in the city in the near future.

“This combination of great talent and innovation resources gives it every opportunity of becoming a significant tech hub as this report suggests and Allia will do all we can to help make this happen.”

Steve Bowyer, chief executive of Opportunity Peterborough, said: “We’ve recently welcomed reports from national agencies that have listed Peterborough as ranking amongst the top 10 cities in the country for things like business start-up growth and the number of private knowledge service jobs available.

“These indicators are testament to the continued strength and growth of Peterborough’s economy, and this survey by Joblift is yet another.

“Peterborough has a younger demographic than average, with high enterprising levels (50 per cent above UK average).

“The city has a varied economy with a strong presence from manufacturing, agri-tech and digital sectors which are all underpinned by digital skills; together these sectors are encouraging the adoption of new technology.

“Although the report highlights that we don’t have a leading university in the city, Peterborough does have an established and burgeoning further education offering through University Centre Peterborough which is working closely with local companies.

“As plans for Peterborough’s own university are well underway, it’d be great to hear from more businesses that would like to contribute to shaping the city’s education offer.

“It’s really positive to see so many local businesses recruiting new tech talent and for Peterborough to feature so prominently in this report.

“We look forward to seeing the forecast materialise over the coming years.”

The top 10 are:

1. Cambridge

2. Oxford

3. Guildford

4. Warwick

5. Peterborough

6. Gloucester

7. Basingstoke

8. Bath

9. Exeter

10. York