The role that UK cities play in both the national
and global economy is changing. While London has long been the nation's de
facto centre for business activity, recent change has brought significant
growth and development to other parts of the country.
Know
Your Money [1], one of the UK's leading independent financial
comparison websites, recently conducted research to find out which UK cities
are best to start a business outside of the capital.
The top ten cities include
1. Birmingham 2.
Sheffield 3. Glasgow 4. Leeds 5.
Coventry
6. Edinburgh 7. Nottingham 8. Bristol 9. Leicester 10. Brighton
The research also revealed that:
- Birmingham has the largest active business population in the UK, outside of London
- Sheffield has the highest business survival rate in the UK (44.9%), while London has one of the lowest (39.3%)
To find out which UK cities are best for new businesses, Know Your Money considered the following factors for each city:
- Business landscape
- Access to talent
- Quality of life
- Growth and development
- Infrastructure
- Funding and support
- Future development
Know Your Money's rankings were determined by using a range of quantifiable and comparable data from official sources and unique insights from their own data. The data was extracted from a number of official sources, as well as industry research and analysis, including:
- Nomis [2]
- ONS [3]
- Numbeo [4]
- Colliers [5]
- Centre for Cities [6]
- Office for Students [7]
Know Your Money's Finance Director, Nic Redfern
commented:
"Small Businesses are key to the future of the UK economy and this study shows
a lot has been done to develop an economic environment across the country in
which they can thrive. There are challenges ahead for some interesting cities
that did not make it into the Top 10, clearly there is still more work to do to
help the spread of opportunity reach across the country.
If you'd like to see the findings in full, click here: [8]