This report is from this week’s CNBC’s UK Exchange newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
The U.K. economy, along with many continental European peers, faces well-established challenges. These include a high debt-to-GDP ratio, a high deficit-to-GDP ratio and an ageing population making increasing demands on the state, just as growth is stagnating.
Yet all is not lost, and an event last Thursday highlighted how some regions are still expanding strongly and, crucially, attracting inward investment in the kind of activities that will help Britain earn a living in the world for decades to come.
More than 500 CEOs, founders, investors and policy makers were present as Innovate Cambridge, a body aiming to promote the city and wider region as one of the world’s leading life sciences and technology hubs, hosted its annual summit.
Among them was Patrick Vallance, minister for science, research and innovation, a veteran of the U.K. life sciences sector who once headed research and development at GlaxoSmithKline. Also there were Zoubin Ghahramani, vice-president of research at AI pioneers Google DeepMind and Nigel Wilson, formerly CEO of the life insurance giant Legal & General, who now chairs the venture capital firm Cambridge Innovation Capital and Canary Wharf Group.
