Something big happened in Cheltenham over the last few days.
No, I’m not talking about the sightings of former Knight Rider and Baywatch star, David Hasselhoff, in the Prom. Even bigger than that. This was something that is set to bring a £25m boost to the Cheltenham economy, attracting jobs and opportunity to our town. Hailed in the national media, it has curiously gone barely remarked here at home.
This was the announcement of the groundbreaking tie-up between GCHQ, Wayra UK (a company providing acceleration services, co-working spaces and mentoring) and local tech start-ups to develop here in Cheltenham the world-class cyber companies of tomorrow.
It is a vitally important step in the development of Cheltenham’s world-leading Cyber Innovation Centre that was announced by George Osborne at GCHQ last year as part of the Government’s £1.9bn National Cyber Security Programme.
I am enormously proud and excited that Cheltenham is leading the way on this. It has long been a driving passion of mine to put our town at the head of Britain’s cyber economy. Back in 2013, at the offices of local IT support company, Converge Ltd, I launched my plan to bring a ‘tech hub’ to Cheltenham. I had been inspired by a Policy Exchange report called ‘Silicon Cities’, which set out the fantastic opportunities for jobs and investment that exist in this area. The cyber security sector alone is worth a whopping £20 billion to the UK, and is one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy.
I wanted our town to be more involved. I was frustrated that here in Cheltenham, despite being the home of some of the finest tech minds anywhere in the world, we were missing out. The situation was made all the more absurd by the Malvern hub trumpeting its proximity to GCHQ as one of its key selling points.
That’s why, in 2015 I repeatedly lobbied everyone from David Cameron down for Cheltenham to be chosen as a Cyber Innovation Centre. Now that vision is becoming a reality. Due to launch around the turn of the year, our CIC will create a local digital ecosystem, in which the most talented people move in and out of GCHQ, bringing the best minds and deepest expertise into the private sector, and the latest innovation back into government. That means jobs and investment for Cheltenham.
Now that’s even bigger than Baywatch.