The M4 corridor is the area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales. The area is a major hub for high-technology companies.[1][2] Technology companies with major operations located in the area include Citrix Systems, Dell, Huawei, Lexmark, LG, Novell, Nvidia, Panasonic, SAP and Symantec.[2]
Important cities and towns in the area include Bath, Bracknell, Bristol, Cardiff, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Newport, Slough and Swansea. The area is served by the M4 Motorway, the Great Western Main Line, including its South Wales branch, and London Heathrow Airport.[3]
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The eastern end of the English M4 corridor is home to a large number of technology companies, particularly in Berkshire, Swindon and the Thames Valley. For this reason this part of the M4 Corridor is sometimes described as England's Silicon Valley. Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Reading, Bracknell and Newbury are the main towns in the Berkshire stretch of the M4.
Reading is home to many information technology and financial services businesses, including Cisco, Microsoft, ING Direct, Oracle, Prudential, Yell Group and Ericsson. Vodafone is located in Newbury, O2 plc is in Slough and the headquarters of Hutchison 3G UK are in Maidenhead.
Investment has gradually spread westwards since the 1980s. In the west the interchange of the M4 motorway and M5 motorway at the Almondsbury Interchange near Bristol had seen considerable growth of industries by the mid 1990s, in adjoining areas where, for example, the headquarters of Orange is located.
The major Welsh cities along the M4 corridor are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. South Wales is a significant industrial heartland of the UK. The 1980s and 1990s saw the development of the Swansea Enterprise Park. The Celtic Manor Resort located adjacent to the M4 in Newport has undergone significant investment and successfully hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup. Newport is home to factories for many electronics firms, such as Panasonic and Alcatel. The 1990s also saw significant investment in Cardiff such as in Cardiff Gate and the Cardiff Bay area. One site of note on the M4 Corridor is Port Talbot Steelworks - the largest steel producer in the UK and one of the biggest steel producers in Europe.[4]
The opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996 resulted in the previous M4 and bridge, serving Chepstow, being renumbered the M48, although the area is still generally considered as falling within the M4 corridor.
Since the start of the 21st Century there has been evidence of more investment west of Cardiff, such as:
Despite recent development the M4 corridor still has within it some of the poorest areas in Western Europe as well as the wealthiest.
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