Cambridge has come out as the best UK city for business in a recent survey which put London in fourth place. Oxford and Brighton were second and third respectively.
In the survey, conducted by Sungard Availability Services, London failed to make it into the top three largely because of the high rental prices and volume of competition. In fact, despite being considered a hub for new businesses, the capital could only manage ninth place when it came to start-up survival rate. It wasn’t all bad news for the city however, with London emerging as the most resilient location when it came to combating cyber-security breaches.
Keith Tilley, EVP, global sales and customer services management, Sungard AS, said: “With the complex IT landscape facing UK businesses today, it is unrealistic to expect one region to excel on all fronts. In order to succeed in the digital age – where customers across all sectors expect ‘all-time’ access and instant responsiveness – businesses should seek to work with experienced partners to help them identify and plug any gaps they may have. No matter what city they’re based in.”
And although southern cities still dominated the overall ranking list, the findings pointed towards a number of areas in which the north of the country is certainly flourishing. When it came to start-up survival rates, York came out on top. Leeds was also placed highly, ranking number one when it comes to graduate talent.
It seems that there is no such thing as the perfect location – almost every city that came out on top for one criterion was subsequently ranked bottom for another, suggesting that there is room for improvement and investment across the entire UK.
Tilley added: “These findings certainly paint an interesting picture for different business capabilities across the UK. Traditionally London has been viewed as the business and digital hub for the UK, so it’s great to see other cities across our country excelling in different areas, such as access to graduate talent, start-up survival rate and average download speed.”
http://www.sungardas.co.uk/top-10-cities-for-business/Pages/index.aspx
