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known as a tech hub, but actually it has got a bit of everything, which has helped make it so successful. Maybe, that’s why Reading has not got a national or international ‘brand’ image – you can’t really badge it.”


He’s right. Reading is no longer the town of the three B’s. It’s Biscuit factory is now high-grade offices, it’s two Brewery sites now house The Oracle shopping and leisure complex, and an M4 logistics hub for Tesco; its Bulb- fields are now Suttons Business Park – noticeably all industrial changes that have helped shape the current Reading economy.


A short trip down ‘Memory Lane’ ...


Witchalls’ comments prompted me to consider how Reading has adapted. On a trip from the upgraded M4 Junction 11, into the town centre along the strategic dual carriageway A33 relief road, I took in a few of the town’s differing developments, most fairly recent, some under construction:


• The established International Business Park, home to global communications and technology leader Verizon


• Reading Gateway – a former Hewlett Packard office and R&D site, now demolished and well under re-construction by Kier as a mixed-use £75 million development including a 175-home residential scheme, a 120-bed hotel, retail units, warehousing, and car showrooms for Nissan and Volvo.


• Part of Reading Gateway, Trade City Reading has recently completed, providing 12 units from c3,000 - 7,000 sq ft.


•


Opposite on the former Courage brewery site, is the huge Tesco distribution centre, one of 23 in the UK.


• Across the roundabout, there are modernised offices at The Imperium. Nearby are several warehouses for local ‘last-mile’ delivery companies – online purchasing has helped make Reading a key logistics hub.


• Between the first of two more roundabouts leading to Green Park and the Madejski Stadium complex adjoining its Millennium Hotel and Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, is Reading Gate Retail Park, handily placed for shopping.


•


I notice a bus by-passing this first often busy roundabout, thanks to its new dedicated lane recently created as part of the town’s mass-


READING NUMBER 1 CITY UPDATE – JULY/AUGUST 2018 businessmag.co.uk


rapid transit improvements to help avoid congestion.


• Beyond the next roundabout, the BMW and Mini car showrooms and the Hilton Hotel overlooking the river Kennet are soon viewed, along with Berkeley Homes’ major residential developments at Kennet Island.


•


Opposite, in Island Road, two of three new warehouses totalling 256,000 sq ft have already been let to Argos and UEC.


• Beyond them, at Island Road West, I can just see the foundation pilings of a 100,000 sq ft warehouse for DHL, the second phase of this new Logistics Park.


We’ve now travelled about one mile from the M4, with roughly the same to go to the town centre on what, from my memory, used to be largely fields, wetlands and the town’s former greyhound and speedway venues.


Such radical changes might be detailed on similar trips down many ‘memory lanes’ of Reading.


A town with a capital T ... for Technology


Reading may be able to adapt and offer a variety of opportunities but technology is the fastest-growing business sector for the town and it now features as an economic differentiator.


This May, the 2018 Tech Nation report identified Reading as one of the key digital towns or cities in the UK, a ‘digital tech hotspot’ with over eight times the concentration of digital jobs compared with the UK average.


The digital tech business turnover in Reading was £13.6 billion in 2017 – with more than 58,000 tech sector jobs in the town. (Oxford has a digital turnover of £1.8b with 25,637 digital jobs.)


In one year, 283 new digital tech companies were founded in Reading.


“Reading’s proximity to London and Heathrow airport has long attracted major multinationals, including Microsoft and Oracle. However, its start-up community is now growing too, and tapping into the established expertise and resources available in the city,” the report stated.


It’s not by chance that this May The Business Magazine staged the first ever Thames Valley Tech Awards at Reading’s Royal Berkshire Conference Centre.


Technology and sciences will continue to underpin the town’s economy, as Thames Valley and south managing partner Richard Baker suggested in EY’s latest UK Region and City Economic Forecast: “The pace of economic and employment growth in Reading (Forecast: 2.4% Gross Value Added per year until 2020) and the Thames Valley is already outpacing London and the wider South East and will continue to do so over the next three years.


“In Reading, the information and communications sector accounts for more than twice as large a share of GVA as the national average.


“This growth reflects the strengths of the region in terms of its highly-skilled workforce; the employer base ranging from world-leading corporates through to fast-growth entrepreneurs; and the region’s sectoral composition.”


Continued overleaf ... Reading Gateway under construction by M4 J11


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