Digital Sector

One of the best-connected digital hubs in the UK

Lancashire’s four universities produce over 1,000 graduates a year with computing, engineering and technology qualifications. Many of these graduates are ‘industry ready’ and highly employable, having benefited from access to the region’s numerous university-based R&D hubs where students, academics and local businesses work closely together on real-life industrial projects.

In October 2020, Blackpool became the connection point for a cutting-edge technology, using subsea cables underneath the Atlantic Ocean, that will deliver some of the world’s fastest and most resilient internet speeds. Delivered by Aquacomms, the cable network joining America to Blackpool and then on to the rest of Europe, puts Blackpool firmly on the map for its digital offering. The cable allows for extremely fast connections, especially to the US, and can withstand huge amounts of data processing.

For growing sectors and businesses that rely heavily on cloud-based work, streaming services, or the ‘internet of things’, most other places in the UK cannot provide the quality of connection that Blackpool can. Having access to this network (which has the capability to carry more than 30 percent of the world’s internet traffic) gives Blackpool a competitive edge in global, mass data markets such as Esports, social gaming, and large-scale data centres.

Silicon Sands will be a digital-led campus for high performance companies. This includes artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, energy consultancies and more, all anchored around a number of ethically powered data centres.

The data centres will be driven by renewable energy, cooled by liquid immersion technology and their excess heat recycled for use in a district heat network. A 32MVA primary substation, along with plans for nearby wind and solar farms, create an abundance of power options, meaning Silicon Sands has the land, power and connectivity to thrive.

Lancashire has an extensive ecosystem of industry-focused groups, publicly funded business support programmes, and informal peer-to-peer networks, all dedicated to growing the county’s digital sector and achieving the county’s 2030 Digital Vision. Larger organisations can also take advantage of the county’s four Enterprise Zone sites with excellent digital capabilities and networks of other IT-reliant businesses. Some examples include:

• Blackpool Tech Hub: a networking group dedicated to helping Blackpool-based digital businesses.
• Digital Lancashire: a peer-to-peer membership organisation (with over 700 participants) which promotes and supports digital businesses in Lancashire. It also runs a Women in Tech sub-group.
• Lancashire Digital Skills Partnership: digital skills training in partnership with Google Digital Garage, Lloyds Bank, and Enterprise Nation.
• Globally-recognised nearby Lancaster University Management School has also launched an Innovation programme, focusing on finding long-term, effective digital solutions for various industries.

Blackpool’s iconic old tram system has been partly repurposed to create an underground super-fast, reliable, fibre-optic internet network that runs the full length of the coastline. One of the first towns to receive government funding to help with the initiative, Blackpool now has multiple businesses and residents connected to some of the best WiFi in the country. Committed internet service providers such as ITS, in partnership with the council, are offering easy and cost-effective support to extend this network, with a Digital Vision for 2030 that will transform connectivity for a very large number of people and make sure no one is left behind.

In a recent 2021 report by Lancashire County Council, a number of key findings were found that suggested the county is strategically advantaged to become a very important player in the UK economy for its digital and technology sector (overall value found to be more than £1bn).

The research further shows that Lancashire’s technology economy has grown by 28 per cent over the past five years, and that it is expected to grow three times faster than the county’s overall economic growth between now and 2028.

The study also looks at specific sectors such as telecoms and computing (the county’s two largest tech sectors) and reveals that wireless communications has increased by 30 per cent in the last five years while the computing sector grew by 20 per cent.