Tech City, Digital Dave’s pet quango, is usually rather adept in its role as a taxpayer funded PR company for digital businesses in East London. Since it was set up in 2010, they have claimed their cluster of digital start ups near Old Street roundabout is one of the UK’s greatest success story and a driver of London’s economy.

With this in mind, the Tech Nation report released today makes for refreshingly honest reading. It reports that 74% of British digital companies are based outside of London. Crucially, ‘tech clusters’ with a higher than average turnover growth since 2010 – the year Tech City started banging the drum for London – include Manchester, Belfast and even Sheffield.

Maybe there is something to that Northern Powerhouse after all… what with the significantly cheaper rent.

UPDATE: George Osborne has just tweeted:

Tech Nation report shows strong growth of #tech biz in Yorkshire & across UK – we're doing more today to help tech growth outside London

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) February 5, 2015