Glasgow named beat place in Britain to do business

Glasgow has been named as ëThe Best Place in Britain to do Businessí, in a special report compiled by Growing Business magazine.

The comprehensive report, which features in the March issue of Growing Business, analysed the 20 largest cities in Britain and applied a unique scoring system marking each city across 21 factors deemed essential to choosing where to locate a business. The report considered:

Location (population; region)

Workforce (availability; quality; skills; labour costs; universities)

Premises (office stock; local authority business rates)

Quality of Life (house prices; schools, crime)

Grants and Funding (available grants; business angel networks; regional venture capital)

Transport (average road speeds; motorways and airports)

Business Activity (business population and growth rate; corporate insolvencies)

The individual scores were added together and converted into a percentage and the cites ranked in order of overall performance. The final table was as follows:

Glasgow
Birmingham
London
Edinburgh
Coventry
Liverpool
Leicester
Sheffield
Leeds
Newcastle
Bristol
Cardiff
Manchester
Bradford
Nottingham
Aberdeen
Sunderland
Belfast
Southampton
Hull


Matt Thomas, features editor for Growing Business, commented: ìThe results were very close but we deliberately set a wide criteria so no one factor could swing it for one particular city. London would have probably won if that were possible, when in truth, its many advantages are countered by a few glaring weaknesses. Birmingham, whose place at the heart of the country gives it enviable access to the rest of the UK, while its clout as the UKís second largest city helped it perform well across many other factors.

ìIn Glasgow, our ëbest place to do businessí, we found a city that ticked every box of what we consider you need to successfully grow your business. Performing consistently well across all our criteria, Glasgow proved that, of all the cities facing a similar challenge, itís adjusted best to post-industrial life and recreated itself as a modern centre of entrepreneurial activity.î

Jim Wallace, enterprise minister for Scotland, was understandably delighted with the results. He said: ìIn Scotland we have undergone a major transformation in the last 30 years from a high degree of heavy industry to a much more diverse economy. Our cities have benefited from growth in industries such as IT, finance services and biotechnology.

ìScotland is a great place to do business and I am delighted Glasgow has performed so well in this report. Our top priority is ensuring economic growth continues. To achieve this, we have put in place a framework that tackles key issues including skills, transport and support for business growth. Initiatives such as this help us nurture a strong and dynamic economy.î

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