Jeremy Hunt eyes up Silicon Valley of the UK

Jeremy Hunt has said the government hopes Cambridge will become the world's next Silicon Valley.

The chancellor visited an independent Italian restaurant in the city on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Small Business Saturday.

"We want to be the world's next Silicon Valley and it's the small businesses in Cambridge that are going to make that happen," he told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

In his Autumn Statement, Mr Hunt pledged £3m to the Cambridge Delivery Group, which is planning new housing and infrastructure.

The chancellor said the government would do "everything we can" to support the city.

"What we know from around the world is that if you do this kind of expansion strategically everyone's a winner, and that's what we want to happen for the people of Cambridge," he said.

"You have lots of start-ups that are the future of the British economy and we have in the last decade become the European hub for life sciences, for technology and the epicentre is Cambridge and that is something we are really proud of."

Cambridge has already been dubbed Silicon Fen after many start-ups moved to the city in the 1990s.

Cambridge Science Park opened 52 years ago, comprising of 150 acres in technology and laboratory space.

It is home to 7,000 people and more than 170 companies.

The Housing Secretary Michal Gove has earmarked Cambridge for 250,000 homes to support aspirations for a new Silicon Valley, as first reported by the Sunday Times.

The original Silicon Valley is a region in northern California home to some of the world's biggest tech companies.

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