Unit 4

• Quaternary sector


  Knowledge based sector of economy
• The quaternary sector is worth over £30 billion to the UK
• Quaternary employment in the UK has become increasingly significant in recent decades
• 10 - 15% of the working population now belong to the quaternary sector
• Location factors in the growth of new quaternary industries

  • Skilled workforce
  • Communications infrastructure (internet connectivity, transportation infrastructure)
  • Government support (research funding, grants)
• Regions with clusters of quaternary and secondary industries in the UK

  • M4 corridor
  • M3 corridor
  • Cambridge and the M11 corridor
  • Silicon Glenn
• Research establishments and universities around the M4 corridor

  • Aldermaston and Harwell (atomic weaponry and energy)
  • Jealott's Hill (agrotech)
  • Porton Down (science and defence)
  • Brunel University (health and life)
• Cambridge Science Park


  Established by Trinity College, first company moved there in 1973 (Laser Scan), 64 companies employed 9000 people by 1999
• The wider Cambridge area saw growth in the quaternary sector with 12,000 companies employing around 35,000 people having located there by the 1990s
• Agglomeration of economies


  The benefits that firms obtain by locating near each other
• 8.2% of all science related jobs are located in Cambridge whereas just 2.4% are located in Birmingham in 2013
• The median house price in Cambridge was £291,000 in 2013, compared to around £120,000 in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham
• The median house price in South Cambridgeshire was £426,000 in 2011
• In 2011, 3.7% of adults were unemployed in Cambridge, compared to 6.7% in Birmingham
• The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham

  First redeveloped 20 years ago into an award-winning arts and media quarter, the £10 million, 100,000 ft.² redevelopment housed around 100 small and medium creative industry companies in 2010
• A grand award of £800,000 was used to start the redevelopment of the Custard Factory in January 1992
• Construction work began on a MasterChef studio in Digbeth, which will be part of a new purpose built broadcast centre called the Tea Factory