A sports car is travelling fast down a quiet country lane, braking fast it stops alongside a farmer leaning on a 5-bar gate looking out over the fields. “I’m lost”, says the driver, and goes on to ask directions to a local country house hotel. The farmer thinks deeply before he replies – “I wouldn’t start from here if I were you”.
When I read about new technology investments in the magazines like Growing Business, www.growingbusiness.co.uk, I am often struck by the high proportion of deals that involve regional public sector funds such as Scottish Enterprise, www.scottishenterprise.com, or One North East, www.onenortheast.co.uk, is this because they have better technology start-ups there. Of course not, its because innovation has become a regeneration issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting new enterprise in regeneration areas, some of our own companies have moved to Wales to take advantage of cheap manufacturing space and employment incentives (that are not available in Sussex). But to me it’s counter-intuitive to discriminate new technology ideas on where in the UK they come from. And its not just investment funds, as far as I can see, proportionally more public money is made available for research & development and commercialisation funding for projects outside London and the southeast.
How does this help the UK? New technology ideas should be taken on their merits and funded where they are. Support the company through its early stages and then you can offer incentives to encourage companies to move to regeneration areas (their decision).
ENCOURAGE the NATION’S INNOVATION! !
Mike Herd, Sussex Innovation, www.sinc.co.uk
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