Craig Such: Follow cycling's example to make Yorkshire a tech industry powerhouse

That’s a growth rate of 22 per cent in five years, outstripping the growth of the UK economy as a whole during the same period by around four per cent.

The opportunities in this sector are enormous, so a report out last week from NatWest highlighting how lending to technology, media and telecoms (TMT) businesses in the north of England is increasing made welcome reading.

If banks are increasing their lending, and TMT companies are seeking out finance to grow, it can only be good news for the sector.

The report itself referenced “exceptional tech businesses” in the regions closing the gap on London’s technology hub.

As MD of fast-growing Sheffield tech company Azzure IT, I’m absolutely convinced of Yorkshire’s potential when it comes to leading the way in the tech industry.

But for the region to truly become the digital centre that it is capable of, we need to put tech businesses centre stage.

The key to success in any business is to always have your eye on where you want to be, rather than clinging to where you are now. For our region, if we want to be at the forefront of tech, we must make sure that enough focus is being placed on it.

For a long time, manufacturing has been the golden child in Yorkshire, occasionally to the detriment of other sectors.

There is no denying the importance of manufacturing to our region – nor would I want to. As a sector, it employs around 11 per cent of all workers in the region and plays a central part in the economic success of Yorkshire. But I believe that the tech sector in Yorkshire has the potential to become just as important as manufacturing in the future.

Some great work is already being done by both Leeds and Sheffield Local Enterprise Partnerships in promoting both city regions as prime areas for tech start-ups and bases for established digital businesses to relocate to.

You only have to look at some of the regional success stories – from AQL’s progression to a leading data centre provider to Sky Betting and Gaming creating hundreds of jobs in Leeds and Sheffield.

For me, as a business owner in the tech industry, we need to do even more to promote our region as the place for growing, ambitious digital companies.

Get this right, and we will

start to overcome one of the biggest barriers to success – people and skills.

For anyone looking for a career in tech, Yorkshire should be right up there for consideration. Some huge names are now based here, the quality of life is far superior to being based in central London and we are quite literally slap bang in the middle of the UK, with good transport links for getting to just about anywhere – including direct flights straight to Silicon Valley if you nip across the Pennines to Manchester.

But I don’t believe that the message that all this is available is getting out loudly and clearly enough to our bright stars of the future, or indeed experienced tech professionals who might be at the stage where they want to be able to start a family and buy

a decent-sized house rather

than a postage stamp somewhere near the start of the Northern Line.

I’d like to see more joined-up action from the whole region to make this happen. Yorkshire covers such a large geographical area and it’s easy to understand why city regions have become the driving force behind things, but we would have more clout if we worked together as the whole of Yorkshire.

A perfect example of this is the work done by Welcome to Yorkshire in positioning Yorkshire as an international cycling destination. A decade ago, the idea that Yorkshire would have a strong presence on the international cycling circuit would have seemed far-fetched.

I don’t see why Yorkshire can’t achieve a similarly strong reputation when it comes to the tech industry.

The stats for Leeds City Region for tech business growth and potential are really exciting. Likewise, a recent report by the University of Sheffield and Creative Sheffield revealed that Sheffield’s digital companies boast one of the highest growth rates of any cluster in the UK, with turnover increasing at 47 per cent.

Put those two regions together and we really do have something very special right here in Yorkshire.

Let’s shout this stuff even louder. Yorkshire has always been a powerhouse of makers and creators. We led the way in the industrial revolution. Our digital and technology makers have every opportunity to lead the way in the continuing technological revolution too.

Craig Such is MD at Sheffield-based Azzure IT Ltd.