Reading as knowledge-based economy
Innovation drives growth
As globalisation continues, cities need to attract and foster innovative firms to maintain competitive, dynamic economies – these entrepreneurial firms can help cities develop new strengths to recover from the recession. Reading has outperformed almost every other major city in the UK in this area - coming third to Oxford and Cambridge in its total number of employees in knowledge-based industry.
The table below shows the performance of the top ten English cities in growing
employment in knowledge-intensive activities.
Centre for Cities' report "Innovation, Science and the City" acknowledged that innovation has risen up national, regional and local policy agendas in recent years, but also highlighted how public sector enthusiasm for innovation often leads to a proliferation of gimmicky policy initiatives – like Science Cities – that fail to address the real issues facing innovative local businesses. Instead businesses can be confused by the extent and range of policies on offer. Centre for Cities has called for innovation to be integrated into mainstream economic development policy, and for cities to focus on getting the basics right – to tackle transport bottlenecks and congestion, improve the housing offer, and smooth planning processes for growing entrepreneurs.
Percentage of employees in knowledge-intensive businesses, 2006
- Oxford 37.1
- Cambridge 34.3
- Reading 29.2
- Norwich 27.2
- London 27.1
- Millton Keynes 25.8
- Aldershot 23.8
- Brighton 23.7
- Bristol 23.6
- Southampton 23.2
(Source: Webber, C (2008): Innovation, Science and the City. Centre for Cities)
