While London office space may be at the top of many businesses’ shopping lists, demand for commercial property across the regions is also seemingly growing.
Increasingly, companies are looking to establish offices outside the capital, to complement their central headquarters in the south-east.
Some firms are choosing to fully relocate to other cities, with office space in Bristol and Milton Keynes growing in demand, while other centres such as Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham also benefit.
The government’s decision to invest £150 million of public funds creating connected cities across the UK may persuade more firms to look beyond the capital and consider their options elsewhere.
Chancellor George Osborne recently announced plans to deploy 80Mb broadband services across ten major urban hubs, including London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
After increasing the size of the Urban Broadband Fund from £100 million to £150 million, he announced that a further ten cities would see network investment.
With businesses sure of enhanced connectivity outside of London, more could be tempted to hire serviced office space in the regions.
Manchester is one city set for a business boom – based upon a recent report from New Economy.
The paper claimed that 66,500 new jobs could be established in the city’s financial and professional services sector by 2020.
At present, around 250,000 people, employed by 26,000 different companies, work in professional services in Greater Manchester.
London – a one of the world’s premier trading centres – is always likely to hold the greatest appeal for businesses looking to position themselves at the centre of their sector.
But with the government investing in infrastructure outside the capital, companies have increasing opportunities to tap into regional economies, boost their own profits and support the economic recovery.
