Wolverhampton among top places in the UK for business
Released: 10 September 2007
Wolverhampton City Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Enterprise has welcomed new research which shows that the city is among the best places in the UK to do business.
The city has been named 13th in a list of the best cities and towns in the UK for a company base, ahead of London and nearby Black Country towns such as Dudley and Walsall.
Travel management firm Portman Travel has compiled the list in a study of what company bosses look for when deciding where to locate their headquarters.
Councillor Peter Bilson, who is the council Deputy Leader as well as Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Enterprise, today said the findings once again reaffirmed Wolverhampton’s status as a premier city for business.
“The results of this study will come as no surprise to many people in Wolverhampton and beyond.
“The city is a great place for businesses to operate from, located right in the heart of the country with excellent road and rail links.
“Economic regeneration, through increasing employment and encouraging business growth and investment, has always been an important activity for this council and its partners - and the benefits to the city year-on-year are clear to see.
“The city is enjoying unprecedented levels of investment, with multi-million pound schemes creating thousands more jobs and business opportunities.
“In addition the Wolverhampton Development Company is being set up by the council and its partners to speed up regeneration further - it’s a very exciting time for the city,” he said.
The study identified the seven key factors bosses look for when deciding where to locate their headquarters, and ranked these against the 65 largest towns and cities from across the UK, all of which have a population of more than 100,000.
The seven factors were:
• cost of land
• availability of talent
• proximity to airports
• railway network
• availability of green space
• levels of traffic congestion
• availability of supply chain
Issued by the press office.