Tech firms acquire more City office space than banks in 2012

Technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies have acquired more office space in the City of London than firms in the financial sector during 2012, according to the latest figures from Knight Frank Research.

TMT firms accounted for 931,000 sq ft of offices in the first nine months of the year, up 39 percent on the 670,000 sq ft acquired in the equivalent period of 2011. The financial sector, on the other hand, has acquired 620,000 sq ft so far this year, down from 680,000 sq ft in the same period last year.

The City of London is an area that is renowned for being dominated by big banks, and the figures are likely to come as good news to the government, which has made a string of announcements around trying to nurture a flourishing technology start-up scene.

The government hopes that by investing in the technology sector it will protect stable growth for the UK in the future.

Core to the government’s’ technology strategy has been promoting Shoreditch in London as the technology hub of Europe, dubbed Tech City.

It was also announced today that the government’s Tech City Investment Organisation has managed to secure a high profile hire in Joanna Shields, Facebook’s vice president and European head.

In other Tech City news, it was recently revealed that three local Shoreditch technology businesses have clubbed together to launch a new high-speed fibre network and secure cloud services.

The Shoreditch Network is a collaboration between bandwidth infrastructure provider euNetworks, cloud hosting provider Carrenza, and network company Optimity.