Cambridge is UK's highest paying IT region

Cambridge has overtaken London to become the highest paying region in the UK for IT professionals, according to some analysts.

A survey conducted by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) and iProfilestats shows IT freelancers who work in the East of England earn on average £40 per hour, compared with £39 per hour in London.

The average hourly rate for UK IT freelancers is £35 per hour.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of ATSCo, said: "The bear market has mauled the IT departments of London's financial sector. Each round of job losses has undermined London's position as the highest remunerating region in the UK for IT professionals.

"The success of the East of England as a hi-tech research and manufacturing centre is well known and Cambridge is the only top 20 world technology cluster outside the US, but to see contractor rates in the region outperform London is surprising."

Hourly contract rate of IT professionals by UK regions (see graph below).

Ann Swain continued: "Unlike Cambridge, London tends to have too many eggs in one basket. The City has marketed itself as a world investment banking centre and finance-related IT jobs have been hit hard by the downturn in corporate finance work in the City.

"The diversity of Cambridge's hi-tech cluster means the region has weathered the downturn with comparative ease. Rather than relying solely on business from investment banks or risky dotcoms, the city's hi-tech market is driven by R&D businesses across many sectors. R&D research, by its very nature, tends to be long term investment that should be less susceptible to temporary market fluctuations."

IT spending in Cambridge's technology sector has so far remained robust, according to iProfilestats.

"The Cambridge hi-tech sector is at the cutting edge of experimental high growth technology. Where other UK hi-tech clusters are assembling mobile phones Cambridge entrepreneurs are developing areas such as biotechnology," a spokesman said.

"The continued venture capital investment into Cambridge makes it the envy of many of the UK's larger cities."

According to ATSCo, the East of England has a restricted supply of skilled labour to draw on.

"A natural shortage in the supply of in-demand skills in the East of England and the fact that the expansion of the Cambridge technology sector is severely restricted by the plan of the historic city partly explain why contract rates have held up," Mrs Swain added.

However, not all IT market statisticians are agreed.

Nick Wells, founder of the IT statistics site, Jobstats, says average hourly rates for freelance IT workers are only £19 per hour or £35,500 per annum for permanent workers.

The South East also appears two places below the City in his most recent top five locations for freelancing:

London 28.4 per cent - £19 per hour, £41,300 per annum;

City 5.9 per cent - £22 per hour, £50,100 per annum;

Berkshire 4.5 per cent - £13 per hour, £36,800 per annum;

South East 3.7 per cent - £31 per hour, £39,800 per annum;

Surrey 3.2 per cent - £18 per hour, £34,400 per annum.

The five most popular skills, according to Jobstats, are:

Management 32.7 per cent - £23 per hour, £40,500 per annum;

Support 26.9 per cent - £16 per hour, £31,700 per annum;

Analyst 19 per cent - £20 per hour, £35,500 per annum;

Design 18.2 per cent - £27 per hour, £38,300 per annum;

SQL 16.7 per cent - £27 per hour, £34,100 per annum.