Liverpool tech cluster evangelical about being next Merseyside miracle

Liverpool tech entrepreneurs, from left: Jonathan Holmes; Martin Kenwright; Leo Cubbin; and Clemens Wangerin. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Inside the offices that nestle within the old warehouse buildings of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, which house many of the city’s nascent digital technology companies, there’s a sense of purpose and industry.

Liverpool is classed as having a tech cluster, which means, according to a report out this Thursday, its digital industries stand a good chance of growing faster and generating higher salaries than in much of the rest of the country.

“There’s money here,” says Leo Cubbin, co-founder of Liverpool-based Ripstone, the creator of computer games such as Pure Chess and Ironcast. Fellow founder, Phil Gaskell, nods in agreement.

The pair are talking in a small meeting room about the 14 or so private shareholders who have backed his company. Many of them are high net worth individuals based locally and a well-known figure from the football industry is advising on future finance.

 Liverpool is home to a cluster of games companies. Photograph: Alamy

Ripstone, which seeks £2m for further growth, is located in the heart of the Triangle, a development area overlooking the river Mersey with a skyline on one side dominated by the city’s imposing Anglican cathedral. 

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Liverpool has a history of video game making, dating to the studios owned by Sony, Bizarre Creations and Evolution. However, Studio Liverpool, famous for its Wipeout series of racing games, closed in 2012, leaving about 100 games experts looking for jobs or companies to found.

Now it is home to a cluster of games companies that feature prominently in the narrative of the state of Britain’s digital economy as portrayed in the report by Tech Nation, the government-backed initiative.

Tech Nation is what the London-focused Tech City has broadened into now the government has decided to promote the growth of digital startups around the country, rather than just in Shoreditch and surrounding areas in the east of the capital.

In his new year’s message, the digital economy minister said the industry was expanding around the UK. “Digital fever has exploded from the cluster in east London, and has spread to every part of the country, making the UK truly a Tech Nation with more than 70% of digital businesses now based outside of the capital,” Ed Vaizey said.

 Ed Vaizey, who says ‘digital fever’ has spread across the country. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Doubts about the government’s commitment to Tech North, the northern offshoot, were raised recently, when Claire Braithwaite, its passionate chief executive, resigned after less than a year in the job. Herb Kim, the executive chairman who is filling in during the interim, promises that the commitment to spreading the digital economy outside London remains as strong as ever.

For all its efforts at regeneration, Liverpool remains an embodiment of the north-south divide in terms of pure economics statistics. The employment rate is 61.2% compared with an average in UK cities of 71%. Output per person in terms of gross value added is £22,092, compared with £42,666 in London. House prices in the north-west average £183,000 compared with £531,000 in the south-east.

Read More: TheGuardian.com