Life on a small offshore island

Revisiting this blog 7 years later and it is interesting to recognise how much remains the same. Now based on the Isle of Wight and concerned in local issues I see how a small part of the UK operates with a subset of the innovative organisations and with island specific issues of time and cost.

In the wider UK we still see a healthy landscape of universities, partnership organisations, centres of excellence and industry. With new centres, for example in graphene, and new innovation organisations such as the Catapults in key technology areas. There is also an apparent centralisation of innovation into larger centres and cities such as Manchester, Glasgow and London. 

One of the interesting areas which has powered ahead is software technology companies emerging in a London ecosystem. I was involved in early discussions on the infrastructure to support these companies through Science Parks and emerging infrastructure in 2011. These elements have subsequently developed with the key elements such as a critical mass of trained specialists, links to finance and markets through the City of London producing for example new products in fintech and social media. 

 The Innovation Map which I produced while in the Civil Service details the key strands that are needed to create and commercialise new innovative products and services. When I left the UK seemed to be in an enviable position with all those elements within a stable ecosystem, and with wider links to the rest of the world. However the UK is consumed for now, and the foreseeable future, by the relationship with Europe. A self inflicted wound that damages key relationships and make access to market harder. We see companies moving business and HQs outside the UK and concerns over the loss of easy market access to Europe, the largest free market economy in the world. When manufacturing and service companies relocate outside the UK it damages our innovation ecosystem while scaring off the students, specialists and entrepreneurs that we need to build and support our key industries. 

Returning to the Isle of Wight there are interesting companies, some innovative opportunities and limited links to research and expertise elsewhere. Unfortunately the short stretch of water to mainland UK showcases how unfettered financial manipulation of the key transport link of ferries leads to horrendous transport costs and restrictions that damage industry and innovation. Let alone the social costs of isolation and practical exclusion from some critical healthcare systems. These issues mirror the problems that the UK will face if we build new barriers between us and our largest market and help demonstrate why I support all efforts to persuade the British people to remain in the EU.