Government aims to build a technology hub in London's East End

Cameron outlines plan to make area a rival to Silicon Valley

Cameron said budding entrepreneurs from overseas will get easier access to the UK

Prime Minister David Cameron outlined a plan to create a technology hub in the East End of London to rival California's Silicon Valley, in a speech to high-tech business leaders and entrepreneurs today.

The initiative will see the government invest £200m in new technology and innovation centres in the area, with an extra £200m of equity finance to be provided for businesses with high growth potential.

Following consultation with various tech companies and leading universities, McKinsey & Company, Google, Facebook, Vodafone and BT have all said they will invest in the area.

“Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres,” said Cameron.

The coalition intends to aid UK tech growth by introducing a new Entrepreneur Visa, where if you have a business idea and serious investment you will be given easy access to the country.

“If you’ve got an idea and if you have the ambition to build a world-beating company here in the UK, we want you; we’ll make it easy for you,” said the Prime Minister.

Further to this, an independent review will be carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) into the UK's intellectual property (IP) framework.

This will aim to ensure that London is fit for purpose in the internet age, following criticism from Google that it could never have started up in the city due to the difficulties of IP legislation.

“An IP system created in the era of paper and pen may not fit the age of broadband and satellites. We must ensure it meets the needs of the digital age,” said Baroness Wilcox, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for BIS.

“The future of the economy lies in the highly skilled, technology sectors. For many of those companies their intellectual property is their most valuable asset,” she added.

Email solutions company Mimecast, based in King's Cross in London, welcomed the announcement.

“The UK is a great place to do business with innovation at its core, and David Cameron’s vision for a silicon valley-esque East London will make that even better,” said Peter Bauer, Mimecast’s co-founder and CEO.