Clusters:
- Clusters are ‘geographically proximate groups of interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers and associated institutions in a particular field’ – they need a sizeable local population, nearby universities and research establishments, some suppliers and customers already there, and cheap and fast transport
- Clusters enable cities to be more productive than towns, and mega-cities more than cities – they offer major synergy benefits viz:
- A pool of right skilled labour – ‘talent attracts talent’
- A cross-fertilisation of ideas and technology for more innovation
- Availability of, and competition between, specialised local suppliers who offer other members a quick service and less need for stock
Current UK clusters · London Financial, business & legal services Media and creative industries · Thames Valley IT · East Anglia, Cambridge IT, Biotechnology, Genomes, Telecomms · Midlands Automotives · Yorkshire, Humber Metals · North – East & West Automotives, Chemicals, Defence, Medicines · Scotland Call centres, Engineering, Shipbuilding |
- John Rose, CEO of Rolls Royce, asked: “Why does the UK not have something like France’s world competitive cluster in Toulouse – it’s a great example of industry, academia and government working together to create world-class products – it supports 94,000 well-paid, highly skilled jobs in 1,200 companies and has a turnover of 10 billion euros”
- The USA has benefitted from many such clusters too viz:
- Silicon Valley – Stanford University set aside land for their graduates to set up their own businesses:
- William Hewlett took advantage and Hewlett Packard now employs some 80,000 people
- ditto David Filo and Jerry Yang with Yahoo
- ditto Larry Page and Sergey Brin with Google
- Boston life-sciences cluster
- Silicon Valley – Stanford University set aside land for their graduates to set up their own businesses:
- Government ministers should offer powerful incentives for new clusters to be developed in more regions, especially if the need is to rebalance the economy