CHELTENHAM’S CYBER AMBITIONS

GCHQ is Cheltenham’s biggest employer (around 6,000 people work in the “doughnut” at Benhall). The UK government’s communications headquarters moved into the town 67 years ago. Now the regency town of Cheltenham is determined to capitalise on its famous neighbour by revealing an ambition to become a global cyber centre which could bring hundreds of millions of pounds to the region’s economy.

Late last month Cheltenham Borough Council revealed that it had paid £37.5 million for 45 hectares of prime development land to the west of Cheltenham, on previously green belt space between Junctions 10 and 11 of the M5, to develop what it’s dubbed “Cyber Central”.

Developed in partnership with Tewkesbury Borough Council, the County Council, Gloucestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership with the support of Cheltenham’s MP Alex Chalk, Cyber Central will include Cheltenham’s Cyber Innovation Centre which was announced in the Government’s 2015 Spending Review.

The scheme is a critical part of a larger 107-hectare plan for the west of Cheltenham which will also include a new garden village community, providing new homes for an anticipated growth in the local work force.

Global companies share Cheltenham’s cyber ambitions, and a significant number of global tech and cyber companies have already established themselves close to GCHQ, including Raytheon and Northrop Grummen, alongside other major software companies and many smaller ones, all feeding the region’s cyber eco-system.

In fact, since 2015, local cyber security start-ups have generated an estimated £75 million for the town and this autumn a new 7,000 sq ft cyber coworking space, Hub8, will also open in the town centre’s Brewery Quarter.

The town’s ambitions are to develop much more than just a cyber business park and residential estates to feed it. Cheltenham Borough Council is seeking inspiration from successful science and tech projects around the country before beginning to build its own vision for a pioneering new cyber community.

Infrastructure improvements are also needed to cope with an influx of companies and people. Major road investment is needed especially around at Arle Court, just off junction 11 of the M5, to cope with increased traffic.

In February 2017, Cheltenham won a bid for £22 million of government infrastructure funding to accelerate the release of employment land. This significant pot of money will pay for improvements to the transport infrastructure along the A40 corridor in West Cheltenham to reduce congestion along the A40.

Junction 10 also needs to become a four-way junction, and Gloucestershire County Council, supported by Cheltenham and Tewkesbury borough councils, are currently leading a multimillion-pound bid to secure the infrastructure funding needed for this to happen. The bid decision will be made this autumn.

Cheltenham is seizing a unique opportunity to create a town for the 21st century. Currently known best for its literature and music festivals, and as the home of national jump racing, the successful realisation of its cyber ambitions could change for ever the way the UK, and the world, sees this spa town.