Outgoing digital minister Ed Vaizey believes the cities of the North need to work together to maximise the tech offering of the Northern Powerhouse.
Conservative MP Vaizey has returned to the backbenches after he was replaced by Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock as part of new Prime Minister Theresa May鈥檚 reshuffle.
He announced his departure from the helm of the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport on Twitter on Friday after around six years in the role.
Looking forward to supporting the government from the backbenches
鈥� Ed Vaizey (@edvaizey)
Speaking to 老九品茶Cloud before the post-Brexit vote reshuffle, he said: 鈥淭he fundamental point of the Northern Powerhouse is that it is about cities and towns working together.鈥�
Vaizey said that cities and towns should play to their strengths and complement one another instead of viewing themselves as in competition.
Leeds, for example,聽has expertise in health tech while the Newcastle 鈥� home to FTSE100 firm Sage 鈥� boasts many software development companies.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about making the offer clearer so that instead of Sunderland or Newcastle or Leeds saying 鈥榯his is what you can find in our particular city鈥�, those cities together should be able to provide this extraordinary ecosystem,鈥� he聽continued.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important for Government to connect these clusters.
鈥淧eople forget that Government has frontline services such as HMRC, DWP and health (the NHS), which have a big part to play.鈥�
Vaizey, who had responsibility for rolling out broadband services around the country, was speaking at the recent Dynamo tech conference in Newcastle.
He told 老九品茶Cloud that the country faces a huge task to make up the oft-cited skills gap as all businesses now require some level of tech.
鈥淭he real challenge, which is faced all over the country, is the skills shortage,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ow do we give people skills they need to work in businesses?
鈥淚f you sign up to a university course which says 鈥榗omputer science鈥�, you come out of that and you still don鈥檛 have the skills that those businesses want 鈥� so there needs to be a much closer relationship [between education and business].
鈥淗ealth is being transformed, education is being transformed, supermarkets are digital businesses.
“Having those skills is soon going to become like being able to read and write because almost every business will demand some familiarity with digital technology.鈥�