Leeds can pass the intelligence test

Adam Beaumont, whose business is pushing ahead with plans to build a £43m data centre on part of the former Yorkshire Chemicals site in Hunslet, said: “There is one single thing that does precipitate connectivity and events and it’s internet exchanges, and more importantly regional internet exchanges.”

One of Aql’s data centres houses IX Leeds, the only mutual not-for-profit internet exchange outside London, whose aim is to improve connectivity between internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers such as social networks or web TV.

With ISPs connected to regional exchanges, a city has “the beginnings of a digital ecosystem”, said Dr Beaumont, adding: “You align a whole load of people that all want to enable digital technology and as they collaborate you’ve the makings of an ‘intelligent city’.”

Leeds is already home to three Aql centres, which means that local internet traffic no longer has to be directed via London. Aql’s new data centre is set to be the UK’s largest independent data centre outside of London.

Dr Beaumont said: “Leeds is quite lucky in that it is at the end of the M1. Most of the fibre travelling up and down the country follows the road infrastructure, the rail infrastructure, it goes on top of pylons, it just so happens that is a very well connected city.

“But up until a few years ago, up until we built this metropolitan data centre, the fibres just went straight through Leeds like a high speed train without somewhere to stop. We’ve given them somewhere to stop.”

He added that Leeds can now “stand on its own two feet”, adding: “It is one of the few cities that is actually resilient from London. This is very important in terms of getting inward investment and north-shoring Leeds.”

Also speaking at the event in Leeds yesterday was Rohit Talwar, the chief executive of Fast Future Research, a research and consultancy firm, who warned that though technology is important, alone it does not make ‘an intelligent city’.

“It is the other things we wrap around it that actually make sure you have a well-educated, environmentally sound and sustainable city which is innovative, attractive on a global scale and has people who are looking ahead the whole time to create what comes next.

“We are in a truly turbulent and uncertain era, we don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out so we can’t simply make choices today and say these are the ones that are going to work, we have to be more experimental, we have to have people who understand that and have the skills to be experimental and try different things, and that desire to give ourselves permission to believe we can create a viable future.”

Mr Talwar advises international governments and corporations on how to understand and respond to the various forces shaping the future.

Earlier in the day, Lurene Joseph, chief executive of Leeds and Partners, whose aims include raising the profile of the city, said the digital sector is “the golden thread” which will propel Leeds “further into the psyche nationally and internationally”. She said: “I think we’d all agree that most cities now would say or claim they are digitally enabled or digitally committed to this agenda but when you look at the infrastructure that we have, when you look at the types of companies that we have in Leeds, I think we claim that we are furthest ahead.

“But if you look at where we’ve come from, complementary to London, in terms of the broadband infrastructure, we are now up there and it’s only us and London doing that in terms of providing that certainty and security.

“When you look at the sorts of companies that relocate here, change their business models, whether that’s in financial and professional services, whether it’s in the health agenda and innovation, the digital sector is at the heart of that.”

She also praised the region’s universities and the council’s work on apprenticeships, adding: “We know that we’ve got talent and we’ve got expertise.”