You’ve heard the expression ‘location, location, location’ when it comes to residential property, but businesses searching for a new office spot would do well to remember that their success also depends on being in the right place geographically. Choosing the right location for your office is an important part of your growth strategy. Naturally, every business has a different budget and unique set of needs. Aside from obvious benefits such as the existence of good transport links close by, the presence of supportive local schemes and favourable government policies is another plus point to consider. Similarly, productivity and innovation can abound when a complimentary group of businesses work in close proximity – ideas, experiences and clients are shared – so it’s a good idea to find out where the hub spots are for industries in your niche. Whilst it’s common knowledge that London and the South East represent a thriving and concentrated business community, it’s not the whole story when it comes to choosing areas with the best reputation for business growth. Here’s our choice of the top 10 UK office locations and the sectors that are thriving in them:
10) County Durham
County Durham is in the North East of England. Historically, the county has a history of mining, farming and heavy railway industries with its economy being primarily based on coal and iron mining. However, the area is rapidly changing and its regeneration statement includes objectives to nurture business development and growth, create the right environment for innovation and promote County Durham as an attractive economic location for investment. County Durham wants to become a top location for business, and is focusing on both supporting start up businesses and facilitating the expansion of businesses with high growth potential. Efforts are showing promise with food and drink companies in particular registering significant growth in this area. It is certainly worthy of a spot on the top 10 UK office locations and will be of particular interest to the food and drink sector.
9) Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester in the North West of England. Although the town retains some of its original industries (paper-manufacturing, textiles, packaging, building materials and steel foundries), Bolton has seen a massive growth in service-based industries, including high tech electronics, IT companies, call centres and data processing. Of particular interest to businesses considering office space here, there are a number of regeneration projects planned over the next decade with millions of pounds being injected into both retail and innovation. Bolton is well served by both the local road network and national routes making it a good choice for growing businesses looking for affordable premises that are easily accessible to both customers and prospective employees.
8) Bristol
There are a long list of reasons why Bristol makes an attractive office location. Firstly, its GDP makes it more affluent than the UK as a whole, at 40% above national average. Secondly, the city has a huge financial services sector, employing some 59,000 people, and of equal importance, a significant high tech sector with 50 micro-electronics and silicon design companies employing about 5,000 people in total. These include HP’s national research laboratories. Bristol is also a big tourist destination for foreign tourists, attracting nine million visits a year. As well as financial services and high tech businesses, Bristol’s manufacturing companies are seeing strong growth, with prominent companies in the aerospace industry (Airbus, BAE Systems – formerly Marconi/BAe – the latter being formerly BAC, Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation) as well as Rolls-Royce all based here, alongside hot air balloon manufacturer Cameron Balloons. Bristol’s strong growth and thriving economy make it an attractive office space location for your list.
7) Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove is a city in the county of East Sussex in the South East of England. Outside of the world of business, it is perhaps best known for being England’s most populous seaside resort. However, in recent years Brighton and Hove has emerged as a popular location for ambitious education and design sector businesses. Just under 1,600 of the 8,600 businesses in Brighton and Hove are part of the creative economy – in other words, almost one in five of local businesses. Of those, 48% are involved in media or the performing arts, and around one third in design and visual activities. There are a small but growing number of digital media companies showing huge potential. Brighton and Hove is a top destination for the creative industries and sure to be high on your list if you are seeking office space in an environment where innovation and creativity are rife.
6) Sheffield
Sheffield’s economy has seen excellent growth in recent years, spurred on by incentives and extensive redevelopment across the city. The UK Cities Monitor put Sheffield as the third ‘best city to locate a business today’ in 2008. Sheffield is renowned internationally for metallurgy and steel-making, and the manufacturing sector has seen considerable growth both in size, technologies and techniques. Forgemasters is located to the North East of the city and as the sole remaining independent steel works in the world, it has earned a global reputation for producing the largest and most complex steel forgings and castings, as well as producing nuclear components. Of particular interest to small growing businesses, Sheffield City Region is rated the number 1 enterprise zone for modern manufacturing and technology in the UK. Incentives in the zone include 100% enhanced capital allowances for sites suitable for major capital investment for plant and machinery, potential funding from the regional growth fund, business rates relief on selected sites, simplified fast track planning, superfast broadband and more. The city is set to support growth for manufacturing and technology, and is a serious consideration for businesses in this niche seeking office space and commercial property.
5) Manchester
Manchester has historically been a leading location for manufacturing companies. Although it continues to be a hub for ambitious manufacturing, like many UK cities, its economy is now largely service-based. Since 2007, this vibrant city’s economy has been the fastest growing in the UK. There are plenty of sectors thriving here – creative, media, cultural, financial, professional services, life science industries, communications and manufacturing – all making a significant contribution. This is perhaps why Manchester was ranked the second-best place to do business in the UK in 2010.
Notable employers here include the Co-operative Group, being one of the city’s biggest, and now, more recently, the BBC. When it comes to choosing office space here, there are plenty of options: Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London.
4) Camden
Camden is a diverse and vibrant borough, home to the second highest number of businesses in London and the fifth highest in the UK. There are plenty of developments happening in and around Camden that make it worthy of consideration. King’s Cross Central is benefiting from the largest inner-city development in Europe, creating 25,000 new jobs and 400,000 square metres of employment space. Planning permission has been granted there for mixed used development as well as new transport links. Over to Euston and you’ll find the headquarters of some major organisations including Grant Thornton and the University College London Hospital. Under the London Plan, a minimum of 5,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the Euston area between 2006 and 2031, and Euston Station will undergo remodelling to meet the anticipated future growth in passenger numbers. Similarly, Tottenham Court Road underground station will benefit from transport improvements and a minimum of 5,000 new jobs by 2026. Holborn is also seeing redevelopment, particularly of existing offices, and West Hampstead Interchange will benefit from improved transportation too.
The sectors thriving in Camden are diverse, with business services firms (advertising, real estate and consultancy) accounting for around half of all businesses, and creative and cultural industries accounting for around 16%. Notably, 59% of all jobs in Camden jobs are considered to be in knowledge intensive industries, which is the 2nd highest proportion in London behind the City. Facts aside, Camden has an irresistible cosmopolitan vibe that make it an amazing place to work, live or visit, and it deserves a place high on the list of best office locations just for this reason alone.
3) Leeds
Leeds is perhaps a lesser known media hub in the North – attracting companies particularly in the digital gaming sector. A good number of large developers have studios in and around the city, including Rockstar Leeds, developers of Grand Theft Auto, and Activision, developers of the mobile versions of Call of Duty. Notably, Leeds is also the only city outside London to have hosted the Eurogamer Expo. Aside from its growing creative industries, Leeds continues to attract ambitious manufacturing companies. It is the UK’s third largest manufacturing centre and 50% of the UK’s manufacturing base is within a two hour drive of Leeds.
Also of note, people from Leeds have more cash to splash: Leeds is overall less deprived than other large UK cities and average income is above regional averages.
2) London
We need not explain why London is on our list of top 10 office locations for the UK. Our beloved capital city has approximately 8.3 residents making it the most populous region, urban zone and metropolitan area in the UK, as well as being the largest city in the EU. When it comes to choosing an office location, London should be of special interest to tech companies. Back in 2008, developer Matt Biddulph tweeted, as a joke, the phrase ‘Silicon Roundabout’ as a reference to the high number of web businesses that had sprung up around Old Street’s roundabout and of course, a reference to Silicon Valley in California. He even created a Google map that showed the location of the first 15 tech start-ups. Although essentially a bit of humour, Biddulph’s creation sparked huge interest, with blog posts and retweets spreading the phrase like wildfire. Suddenly, David Cameron was on the scene, making a number of visits to the area followed by an announcement to the world that London’s East End was to become a “world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley” – with the roundabout at its epicentre. Regardless of how it started out, the story has been a success. There has been an estimated five-fold increase of tech companies in the area, and the best tech people around the World are now aware of the “Tech City”, as it is often called. The Government is following up its promises with government policies, schemes and even tax breaks to back up its promises. It’s also hard to ignore the number of major companies investing in the area – Cisco, Google, Airbnb, Intel, Vodafone, Yammer and even Facebook. For web companies, London – and now London’s humble East End – should be high on the shortlist of possible locations.
1) Birmingham
Birmingham was an easy choice for our top spot. It is a major international commercial centre, ranked as a beta-world city, and the “Big City Plan” is seeing a large amount of investment being funneled into making Birmingham “one of the top 20 most liveable cities in the world within 20 years”. Birmingham is highly desirable commercially but property is of course more affordable than London, and in 2010 it was ranked as the third best place in the UK to locate a business. Once a hub for manufacturing and engineering, those sectors now represents only 10% of employment, and Birmingham is now dominated by service sector industries. These account for 86% of its employment, with this area seeing a strong trend for high-growth companies in the software sector. Other thriving sectors include banking, finance and insurance, with two of the UK’s largest banks based there (Lloyds and HSBC). In 2011 Birmingham was marked to be an enterprise zone, which has created a wealth of opportunities particularly for professional and financial services, digital media, ICT and the creative industries.
Of course, Birmingham’s transport links are excellent. Being located central to the UK, it is served by the M5, M6, M40, and M42 motorways, and is home to the world renowned Spaghetti Junction. Birmingham Airport is just six miles east of the city centre connecting the city to major international hubs around the World including Dubai, Frankfurt, Munich, New York, Amsterdam and Paris. It has three major railway stations with CrossCountry, the most extensive long-distance train network in the UK, and good links to London. Notably, it also has more canals than Venice.
Aside from Birmingham’s commercial advantages as an office location, it has plenty to offer culturally, there are great schools, affordable property prices and a busy nightlife making it just as much fun to play there as it is to work there.