The North of England has long been a graveyard for grand industrial ambitions. Steel mills, coal mines, car plants – each closure carved a scar into the towns that once powered the nation. Now, a different kind of industry is promising to reverse that decline: microelectronics. And it is doing so with a chip designed not in Silicon Valley or Taiwan, but in a lab in Hursley, Hampshire.
IBM has unveiled what it calls a ‘block of flats’ chip, a vertical stack of semiconductors that packs more processing power into a smaller footprint. It is designed and built in Britain, a deliberate move to secure the supply chain for critical technologies. For a country that has ceded manufacturing ground for decades, this is more than a technical breakthrough. It is a statement of intent.
The chip – formally known as a vertical transport field-effect transistor (VTFET) – stacks computing layers like floors in a tower block. This allows data to flow vertically rather than horizontally, boosting speed and reducing energy use. IBM’s research lab in Hursley, one of only two global centres for the project, has spent years perfecting the design. It is a rare example of homegrown innovation in a sector dominated by American and Asian giants.
But what does this mean for the real economy? For the workers in Sunderland or Swansea who watched their jobs vanish overseas, a chip design lab in Hampshire may feel remote. Yet the government’s new semiconductor strategy, published last month, aims to funnel £1 billion into the sector over the next decade. The hope is that these high-skill jobs will spread beyond the South East. IBM has already partnered with the University of Manchester and the Science and Technology Facilities Council. There are whispers of a new factory in the North West.
Still, the path from prototype to production line is littered with obstacles. Britain’s last major chip foundry, in Newport, was bought by American firm Vishay in 2020. To turn the ‘block of flats’ chip into a commercial success, IBM will need to manufacture at scale. That means either building a new plant or partnering with existing foundries abroad. The government has promised tax breaks and grants, but trade unions warn that without binding commitments on wages and local hiring, the benefits could leak overseas.
“We’ve been here before with nanotechnology and graphene,” said Marie Harrison, a Unite union officer in Sheffield. “The research happens here, then the production goes to China. We need a jobs guarantee.” IBM insists it is committed to British manufacturing. “This chip is designed here, and we want to make it here,” said a spokesperson. But the company has not confirmed a location.
The chip’s naming is deliberate. A ‘block of flats’ evokes the social housing that defined postwar Britain. It is a nod to the egalitarian promise of technology: that innovation should serve the many, not just the few. Yet the reality of the semiconductor industry is fiercely competitive. Taiwan’s TSMC dominates the market. Chips from China are flowing into everything from fridges to cars. Britain’s share of global chip output is less than 1 per cent.
So what are the odds? The ‘block of flats’ chip is a marvel of engineering. It could power the next generation of smartphones, healthcare monitors, and autonomous vehicles. But without a robust manufacturing base, it risks becoming another footnote in Britain’s industrial history: a great idea, built elsewhere.
For the workers in the North who remember the days when making things was what Britain did, the chip is a flicker of hope. But it needs more than applause. It needs investment, apprenticeship schemes, and a government willing to use its purchasing power to back domestic producers. If this chip is to herald a new era, it must be one where the blocks of flats are not just chips, but the factories that build them – and the jobs that sustain communities.
