Digital, Creative & Technology
Fast forward to the future.
Staffordshire’s industrial heritage was built on innovation – now it’s fast being replaced by innovative, forward-thinking ideas and advanced technology to catapult the region to the forefront of the future.
Key numbers
113 km city network;
approx. 80% coverage (103,784 premises)
60+ companies
/ approx. 1,000 jobs at Keele Park; 1m sq ft growth vision; 5,400 jobs
Gigabit foundation, city wide
Stoke on Trent’s Silicon Stoke full fibre project has delivered a 113 km point to point network; around 80% of premises – 103,784 homes and businesses – can now access gigabit FTTP services, with open access wholesale and 5G small cell backhaul riding the same asset.
From fibre to growth sectors
The county’s digital economy shows strong traction in analytics, e commerce, fintech and software, with growth flagged sub sectors in the Stafford area and a deepening base of creative content, gaming and media. Full fibre enables symmetrical multi gigabit collaboration and offsite rendering/compute, lifting productivity for studios and SaaS alike.
University industry fusion
1,000 employees, with plans to expand into Keele Innovation District – adding 1m sq ft and around 5,400 jobs in life sciences, digital and clean energy over time.
Digital ready talent
With pipeline programmes at Keele/Staffordshire Universities and sector academies (e.g. full fibre academy), the area supplies practical, industry aligned skills – from cloud and cyber to XR and creative tech – close to where firms are scaling.
Costs that stretch runways
Against London/Manchester benchmarks, office and studio space is markedly more affordable (typically £10/sq ft for offices in Staffordshire), and living costs are lower – helping digital firms reinvest in growth without compromising on connectivity or talent.
The bottom line
Gigabit infrastructure you can build on, a growing creative/tech scene, university partnerships and costs that extend your cash runway – Staffordshire connects digital ambition to real‑world scale.