Tech City needs a university, says the man behind the brand

Rohan Silva, the man who pushed for London’s Tech City technology entrepreneurship brand while acting as senior policy adviser to David Cameron, has said that the area needs a university presence to tackle its skills shortage.

Although London’s digital industries have grown by 46 per cent since 2010, when Tech City was launched as a brand to describe the area around Old Street roundabout in East London, there is still a “huge amount” to be done to unlock London’s digital potential, Silva wrote in the London Evening Standard newspaper on 16 June. 

He said that a “chronic shortage” of digital technical skills needed to be tackled, and suggested that London follow in the footsteps of New York by attracting a global university to Tech City.