Hopes of economic renaissance in the UK have frequently been pinned on the broad swathe of country from Cambridge to London, and along the M4 from Berkshire to Swindon and Bristol — Britain's 'Sunrise Belt'. This part of southern England has escaped the worst of the recession and rising unemployment, and has raised hopes of future growth based above all around a new wave of electronics and high technology activities. There are examples of companies, locally, which are at the forefront of their technologies, with a significant R&D content and which are expanding rapidly. Non-aerospace high technology employment, on the available evidence, is therefore significantly less important locally than nationally. Employment is mainly concentrated in three major establishments. British Aerospace Dynamics is involved in large-scale R&D and the production of electronics-based systems, computers and sub-assemblies for guided weapons, space and communications equipment and related product areas.
