The UK Innovation Corridor’s ambition of becoming a global hub across tech and life sciences puts Harlow centre stage thanks to the town’s proximity to two of the country’s most productive cities.
Sitting between London and Cambridge, the UK Innovation Corridor’s flagship locations, Harlow could find itself at the heart of Britain’s answer to Silicon Valley over the next decade.
In this blog for the Garden Town, the UK Innovation Corridor’s Chair, Jackie Sadek, has no doubt that Harlow is on the edge of something exciting and can play a pivotal part in rebooting the country’s economy.
The UK Innovation Corridor has been around for over ten years and it’s no exaggeration to say that the area is developing into one of the best collections of life science companies in the world.
It’s a partnership of 15 local authorities, six universities and hundreds of life science experts up and down the M11, all coming together through science, innovation and technology to help solve global healthcare challenges.
And right in the middle of this is Harlow, a jewel in the crown, because that’s where the potential for economic growth is, the core of the Corridor.
Stevenage is a great example of what can be achieved, it’s had over £1bn from venture capital in the last decade and has become established as a life science cluster.
Harlow can do the same and more because everything about the area, with both Stansted and Bishop’s Stortford up the road, is fantastic.
It is a brilliantly planned New Town that is developing into a Garden Town with future housing and alongside that is the sculpture story which is so unique and interesting.
That’s why Harlow is front and centre of the UK Innovation Corridor and why we tell future investors about the town because there is huge interest in its potential.
I presented on the UK Innovation Corridor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the World Real Estate Forum last summer and everyone there wanted to hear more about Harlow.
There’s a strong symbiosis between MIT and Harvard and both have big aspirations for future growth.
I was the only UK speaker at the Forum and Harlow is now on their radar as a town with ambition and one that Americans want to visit.
There’s a connection to art as well because, like Harlow, Harvard have their own Henry Moore sculpture on display and those things can lay a foundation when introducing somewhere new.
We’ve got big global universities in this country involved as well, University of Cambridge and University College London for example alongside Anglia Ruskin, Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Essex so there’s a mix with regional universities contributing to our work.
Keir Starmer and his Government have big ambitions to grow the economy and the UK Innovation Corridor is going to be central to that strategy.
The Corridor has a GVA (Gross Value Added) of £284bn currently and Harlow could easily help us double that by 2040, helping to pay for all the other economic aspirations we have as a country.
Even Canary Wharf are looking to reinvent themselves as a life science cluster so the UK Innovation Corridor is becoming the gateway for property meeting science.
There’s so much talk about the science space currently, from wet labs, dry labs and biotech to financial and property technology and the opportunity within the UK Innovation Corridor is eye watering.
Everyone working on the regeneration and development of Harlow Town Centre and the wider Garden Town project realises this and we’re all on the same platform and singing the song about Harlow’s potential.
We support the Garden Town’s aspirations to create 20,000 new jobs over the next 20 years and the UK Innovation Corridor can play a huge part in that.
Everyone wants to see jobs coming alongside new homes because you’re creating a sustainable future for local people.
We really are revisiting our roots as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution and we have to be on top of this agenda moving forward or the country will be left behind.
