Unlocking the North: Why the Life Sciences Sector Plan Must Deliver for Every Region

The Government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan 2025 aims to send a powerful signal: that the UK is serious about harnessing life sciences as a driver of long-term economic growth and global influence.   

But for this ambition to be realised, we must ensure the opportunity is truly national.  Bidwells latest research showed that 57% of the UK’s life science spinouts originate outside of the Golden Triangle of Oxford, Cambridge and London, yet receive just 28% of the venture capital. By contrast, those in the Golden Triangle receive 72% of VC funding while accounting for only 43% of spinouts. (Now is the Time to Go Big, 2025) 

This imbalance is more than a funding issue, it’s a lost opportunity to unlock the full potential of innovation-rich regions like Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, and Liverpool. 

The Plan acknowledges the North, but will it deliver? 

To its credit, the Government’s Sector Plan acknowledges the geographic breadth of the UK’s innovation economy and references the North West city regions as key players in life sciences. 

The Strategy recognises that long-term success in life sciences will not only come from supporting individual clusters, but from strengthening the corridors that connect them, including the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and a network of Northern city regions. These interconnected ecosystems are positioned as globally competitive engines of innovation, underpinned by major infrastructure investments like East-West Rail, HS2 and Transport for City Regions funding, which aim to enable greater mobility, accessibility, and coordinated cluster growth. 

Manchester is singled out for its devolved NHS powers and academic–health system integration, positioning it well for targeted life sciences investment – perhaps as a future Health Innovation Zone (HIZ). 

But beyond these important mentions, the real test is what happens next. Strategy alone will not rebalance the innovation economy; we need investment. 

The North has the science; it needs the support  

Across the North of England, world-class universities, NHS Trusts, and hospital estates are already spinning out companies, training talent, and attracting international partnerships.  

Yet the inconsistency of business creation and growth across the UK does not reflect the strength of research coming out of these institutions. Many are home to globally recognised academic excellence, but remain disproportionately under-capitalised when it comes to commercialising innovation.  

Spinout activity is thriving across the UK, but retaining those companies in the cities where they originate is a critical challenge.   Retention is a powerful indicator of how well local ecosystems support scale-up. The average retention rate for spinouts in the top 10 locations outside the Golden Triangle is 71%, compared to an average of 80% within Oxford, Cambridge, and London. (Source: Bidwells & Pitchbook)  

Without targeted investment in places like Greater Manchester, Leeds, and Newcastle, too many promising ventures will continue to migrate to better-resourced ecosystems.   

Lower levels of funding availability - particularly for later-stage financing - mean that in many northern cities, research with genuine potential struggle to be commercialised, or early-stage companies fail to scale. This is a loss not only for the cities generating the research, but for the UK economy.  

This disparity is driven in part by risk perceptions among international funders, and by the concentration of opportunity density in a handful of high-profile locations. But the science is there, and the growth potential is real, across a much wider geography.