Vince Cable comes to Silicon Spa

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Right Honourable Vince Cable MP, spent a day in Leamington with representatives from Warwick District Council, firms based in the area, Warwickshire College and Warwick University.

The council’s deputy chief executive Bill Hunt and leader Cllr Michael Doody told Dr Cable about the plans the council is supporting for the development of the Coventry Gateway project, which, if approved, it has been estimated will create 14,000 jobs over the next 15 years.

Videogames entrepreneur David Darling CBE, who co-founded Southam gaming company Codemasters and heads up the Leamington firm Kwalee, was among those to speak to Dr Cable.

He said: “With at least 14 gaming companies within Leamington, it is one of the largest and most concentrated gaming clusters in the world.

“I was very impressed that Dr Cable had already heard about Leamington’s gaming status. The area has produced many games that have gone to the top of the charts and had worldwide success and it’s great to have the area’s many talented individuals recognised from the gaming business area now known as ‘silicon Spa’.”

Warwickshire College’s deputy chief executive Mary Heslop said: “Warwickshire College is one of the largest trainers of apprentices in the Midlands and we work hard with employers to tailor our apprenticeships to meet the needs of businesses now and in the future.

“The college is evolving to develop and encourage enterprise skills in all our students.”