As the UK heads deeper into 2026, cities are racing to position themselves as centres of innovation, entrepreneurship and high-growth industries, and Milton Keynes is most definitely a rising star!
While some locations are already well-known for tech and research, data shows that business momentum is spreading far beyond the usual suspects.
A new study by Optisearch analysed more than 50 major UK cities to determine where business growth and innovation are strongest in 2026, assessing four core indicators: business growth, the concentration of ‘new economy’ firms, patents filed per 100,000 residents, and tech events per capita.
Each metric was indexed on a 0–100 scale and weighted to reflect its influence on future economic performance, with business growth weighted most heavily at 30 per cent, followed by new economy firms (25 per cent), patents (25 per cent) and tech events (20 per cent).
Data was sourced from the Office for National Statistics, Google Patents, Eventbrite, and the Centre for Cities, before being combined into a final weighted score to produce the overall rankings.
Oxford topped the list with a score of 76.68, followed closely by Cambridge on 75.15.
The nation's capital took third place with a score of 53.79, and the new city followed with a score of 51.05, combining 6.3% business growth (fourth), 38.1 new economy firms per 1,000 (fourth), 54,466 patents per 100,000 (fourth), and 486 tech events per 100,000 (17th).
Our 'modern infrastructure and focus on future-facing industries' were seen as the main reasons for innovative firms being attracted to the place we call home.
