Public Sector Relocation

Key Facts

• Birmingham has the most direct rail connections to any other city in the UK

  • London to Birmingham is only two hours by road and one hour 21 minutes by rail, with trains every 15 minutes at peak times - the capital is on your doorstep
  • Birmingham International Airport offers more than 60 direct destinations worldwide, and is also one of the UK's fastest growing airports, having handled over nine million passengers in 2005.

• Birmingham has the largest Professional and Financial services sector outside London

  • There are 600 professional and financial services firms based in Birmingham, employing more than 100,000 people and generating £3.7bn a year - the most significant concentration of these activities outside of London
  • Access to a highly skilled workforce with 80,000 people with advanced IT skills, 57,000 with professional qualifications/degrees and 30,000 people with specialist accounting and other technical skills
  • Voted best UK city location to locate a business outside London and acknowledged as the best UK city to locate a new headquarters. Cushman and Wakefield UK City Monitor 2006
    
    

• Birmingham can cut your operating costs by nearly half   

  • Average prime rentals are £27.50 per square foot in Birmingham compared to the average cost in London of £59.25 per square foot
  • It is estimated there is in excess of 4,900,000sq ft (455,210sq m) either underway or planned to 2010 in Birmingham city centre alone.
  • The average grade A workstation cost is over 40% cheaper in Birmingham compared with London
  • In addition to a comprehensive fibre optic network, Birmingham is at the forefront of the roll out of WiFi service.
  • The telecommunications network is entirely digital. The City is broadband enabled and other key network services such as MPLS, SDH and ATM Technology are widely available.  
    
                                                   

• Birmingham has a highly skilled workforce at 25% lower labour costs than London 

  • Birmingham's labour supply is over 590,000, with a working age population of 4.3 million located within a one hour drive of the city centre.
  • Nearly 19,000 students graduate each year from the City's three universities and over 46,000 studentsgraduate each year from the region's universities.
  • Over 63,000 students are enrolled within Birmingham's 3 universities.
  • More than 113,000 people in the city are qualified to degree level or higher.
    
    

•  Birmingham's house prices are, on average, 40% lower than London

  • With house prices at an average of over 40% lower than London you will have more time to spend on your favourite pastimes. Why not play golf at the Belfry, Ryder Cup Venue, watch test Cricket at Edgbaston, listen to the world class City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Symphony Hall or see the Birmingham Royal Ballet. 

To view the latest Next Stop Birmingham brochure click here.

add to print cart | view print cart