It may not be the first name that springs to mind when thinking about technological leadership in the UK, but Luton has topped a new index which attempts to rank the country’s regions by innovation.
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Funded by Innovate UK, and published by Data City with support from the Open Data Institute (ODI), the UK Tech Innovation Index classifies regions based on “business activity, influence, specialisms and the location of universities and other academic institutions”, as well as the number and concentration of innovation-led events and networking opportunities in a particular area.
It even comes with an online map that lets you explore these factors in more detail. The top 10 overall “clusters” across all business sectors studied are shown in the table below, including the percentage of activity in the UK as a whole. Beneath the table is more on the methodology.
Top 10 most innovative towns and cities
Rank | Cluster | Region(s) | Percentage |
1 | London, Luton | Greater London, East | 21.5% |
2 | Birmingham, Coventry | West Midlands | 7.3% |
3 | Manchester, Stoke, Burnley | North West, West Midlands | 6.4% |
4 | Reading, Aldershot, Slough | South East | 5.0% |
5 | Bristol, Cardiff, Newport | South West, Wales | 5.0% |
6 | Oxford, Northampton, Milton Keynes | South East | 4.7% |
7 | Leicester, Nottingham | East Midlands | 4.7% |
8 | Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Wakefield | Yorkshire and the Humber | 4.7% |
9 | Romford, Dartford | Greater London, South East | 4.0% |
10 | Edinburgh, Dundee | Scotland | 3.9% |
The project and index forms part of the ODI’s innovation programme, a three-year, £6 million programme to boost the UK’s data analytics capabilities, funded by Innovate UK.
Last year’s inaugural index ranked 36 UK cities by their “innovation performance and potential in niches of technology”, particularly the rise of AI and machine learning, and was based on local and national data on businesses in each region, the number and types of events that were being held, and scientific publication records.
For the latest report, called UK Tech Innovation Index 2.0, ODI used machine learning to capture and analyse millions of data points to look at sector-specific groups, and events, and claims to reveal “the true picture of innovation in the UK today.” In particular, it focuses on five sectors that feature prominently in the Government’s Industrial Strategy – AI and Data, Clean Growth, Smart Cities and Mobility, Ageing Society, and Advanced Manufacturing.
As you’d expect, Greater London came top in the overall score, given the saturation of startups, businesses and companies in the capital, and in all the categories. Yet, other clusters were much more evenly spread across the UK. Below we’ve listed each sector and where clusters of innovative companies are most prominent.
Advanced Manufacturing
Outside of London, advanced manufacturing formed reasonably small clusters centred on specific cities. Particularly strong clusters emerged around Manchester in the North West, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby in the East Midlands and a tight cluster in the western part of Yorkshire and the Humber.
Rank | Cluster | Region | Percentage |
1 | London | Greater London | 26.7% |
2 | Manchester, Preston, Wigan, Warrington, Blackburn, Burnley | North West | 7.1% |
3 | Leicester, Nottingham, Derby | East Midlands | 5.4% |
4 | Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Wakefield | Yorkshire and the Humber | 4.9% |
5 | Cambridge | East | 4.8% |
6 | Edinburgh, Dundee | Scotland | 4.4% |
7 | Bristol | South West | 4.2% |
8 | Birmingham | West Midlands | 4.2% |
9 | Glasgow | Scotland | 3.6% |
10 | Coventry | West Midlands | 3.0% |
Smart Cities and Mobility
Birmingham and Coventry are at the heart of a strong Smart Cities and Mobility cluster, seen in the table below. Other areas which rank highly are the South East, with two large clusters across Brighton, Aldershot, Worthing, Crawley and Slough, and another in Oxford, Southampton, Portsmouth and Reading. Four of the top ten clusters also cross regional boundaries.
Rank | Cluster | Region | Percentage |
1 | London | Greater London | 20.9% |
2 | Birmingham, Coventry | West Midlands | 12.2% |
3 | Brighton, Aldershot, Worthing, Crawley, Slough | South East | 6.9% |
4 | Oxford, Southampton, Portsmouth, Reading | South East | 6.4% |
5 | Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Barnsley, York, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Doncaster | Yorkshire and the Humber | 5.8% |
6 | Manchester, Stoke, Warrington, Burnley, Telford | North West, West Midlands | 5.8% |
7 | Leicester, Nottingham, Hull, Derby, Mansfield | East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber | 5.3% |
8 | Luton, Northampton, Milton Keynes | East, East Midlands, South East | 5.3% |
9 | Liverpool, Birkenhead, Preston, Wigan, Blackpool | North West | 4.6% |
10 | Bristol, Cardiff, Newport | South West, Wales | 4.6% |
Ageing Society
Rank | Cluster | Region | Percentage |
1 | London, Slough | Greater London, South East | 31.2% |
2 | Birmingham | West Midlands | 6.2% |
3 | Leicester, Nottingham, Derby | East Midlands | 5.3% |
4 | Manchester | North West | 5.0% |
5 | Edinburgh | Scotland | 4.6% |
6 | Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough | North East | 4.5% |
7 | Reading, Oxford | South East | 3.7% |
8 | Liverpool, Birkenhead, Preston, Wigan, Warrington | North West | 3.6% |
9 | Cambridge | East | 3.6% |
10 | Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield | Yorkshire and the Humber | 3.4% |
Clean Growth
Clean Growth is a key strength in Birmingham, which ranks second in the Clean Growth sector.
Rank | Cluster | Region | Percentage |
1 | London | Greater London | 24.2% |
2 | Birmingham, Coventry | West Midlands | 6.4% |
3 | Leicester, Nottingham, Derby | East Midlands | 5.9% |
4 | Manchester, Burnley | North West | 5.4% |
5 | Aldershot, Slough | South East | 4.4% |
6 | Cambridge, Peterborough | East | 3.6% |
7 | Liverpool, Birkenhead, Wigan, Warrington | North West | 3.4% |
8 | Edinburgh | Scotland | 3.3% |
9 | Oxford | South East | 3.1% |
10 | Glasgow | Scotland | 2.8% |
AI and Data
Rank | Cluster | Region | Percentage |
1 | London | Greater London | 27.1% |
2 | Brighton, Aldershot, Worthing, Crawley, Slough | South East | 6.9% |
3 | Manchester, Burnley | North West | 6.1% |
4 | Birmingham, Coventry | West Midlands | 5.3% |
5 | Leicester, Nottingham, Derby | East Midlands | 4.2% |
6 | Oxford, Swindon, Reading | South East, South West | 4.0% |
7 | Bristol, Gloucester | South West | 3.7% |
8 | Glasgow | Scotland | 3.3% |
9 | Luton, Northampton, Milton Keynes | East, South East, East Midlands | 3.2% |
10 | Edinburgh | Scotland | 3.0% |
The report and map will be updated monthly as new data is collected and analysed. More about the methodology can be found here.
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