The British Prime Minister, David Cameron,  is expected to announce today that East London, is to become an officially sanctioned startup ‘hub’ for the UK.

The ambition is that London will be transformed into a “world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley”. The government has secured commitments from companies including Google, Facebook, Intel and McKinsey & Co to invest in the long-term future of the East London. The Prime Ministers speech which has already been circulated amongst media is expected to say: “We are firmly on the side of the high-growth, highly innovative companies of the future. Don’t doubt our ambition. Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres. I want to show you how we can get there.”

The government envisages an “East London Tech City”;  a technology cluster that will stretch from Shoreditch and Old Street to the Olympic Park. There will be £200 million injection of equity finance for businesses with high growth potential and £200 million for new Technology and Innovation Centres, some of which could be in the Olympic Park. They will also be an opening up of government procurement budgets to small and medium-sized firms.

But most significantly for potential immigrants is the UK government announcement that it plans to introduce a new Entrepreneur Visa. So entrepreneurs with “serious investment from a leading investor” could get a fastrack visa to the UK. This opens up a whole new era of opportunities to migrants wishing to enter the UK for business and investment purposes. We are currently studying the proposals and will post an updated blog to these new opportunities, but overall it seems that there has never been a better time for migrants with sufficient funds to invest, to move their operations to the UK.

Early indications are that:

• The Olympic Legacy Company has agreed to create an “accelerator” space in the Olympic Park, providing office space for companies that grow out of East London

• Intel will establish a new research lab in East London

• Google will create an Innovation Hub in East London, a creative space for their researchers to come together with developers and academics

• Facebook will create a permanent home in East London for their Developer Garage programme

• Cisco will establish an Innovation Centre in the Olympic Park

• British Telecom will bring forward the roll-out of superfast broadband in Shoreditch and Old Street

• Silicon Valley Bank, a West Coast institution, will provide financing for technology companies

• Barclays will create a new facility in East London to provide specialist banking services to high growth technology companies in the area

• McKinsey and Company, one of the world’s leading strategic consultancy firms, has agreed to share its expertise in helping start-up companies

• Qualcomm will provide expert advice to East London start-ups on intellectual property matters, helping them to protect and commercialise their technologies

• Imperial Innovations, the venture capital arm of Imperial College London, will advise the Olympic Legacy Company

• University College London will work with the Olympic Legacy Company to build a student presence in the Olympic Park

• Loughborough University will work with the Olympic Legacy Company to develop plans for an Institute of Sport for Health in the Olympic Park

We, as always, will be poised to deliver the fastest and most up to date immigration advice and counselling available, utilising our specialist and indepth knowledge of UK Immigration law and policy. If you are an investor or involved in the IT or Technology industry and require advice about settleing or working in the UK, contact us now for a free initial telephone consultation on 020 8401 7352