Better for business

Birmingham is the UK's second city and also a world class city, drawing on benefits such as its central location within the UK, national and international connectivity and access to a significant labour force, to make it a location of choice for business. With business costs and cost of living up to 55%* lower than London, Birmingham truly is an efficient and attractive location to do business.

Who is already here?

The largest concentration of businesses outside London makes Birmingham a leading European business hub. The city is already home to 30,000 companies including almost 900 international organisations, such as AECOM, Amey, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Credit Suisse, Cushman & Wakefield, Deutsche Bank, Dunlop Tyres, Eversheds, Jaguar Land Rover, Kraft, Maersk, Pinsent Masons, PwC, Sir Robert McAlpine and Virgin Media. Including the surrounding region, there are some 70,500 companies including over 1,500 international firms.

Connectivity

Birmingham's transport infrastructure via road, rail and air is exceptional. Half of the UK’s population lies within two hours and 90% within a four-hour travel time of the region.

Birmingham's "high speed ring road" consists of the M5, M6 and M42 motorways, allowing easy access to all corners of the region and all other major UK cities and regions.

Birmingham has 3 mainline stations, with a train journey from New Street into London Euston taking around 75 minutes and to Edinburgh Waverley less than 5 hours. There are over 100 journeys into London each day and with the completion of HS2 the journey time into London will be just under 45 minutes.

Birmingham International Airport is a short train ride from Birmingham New Street - about 10 minutes - and serves more than 140 direct routes. A further 280 global connections are available via hub airports including Delhi, Dubai, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. 20% of its 9 million passengers annually are business travellers.

Work force

Birmingham has one of the UK's largest catchment pools for its labour force - primarily the area known as Greater Birmingham, which includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Sutton Coldfield, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge and Halesowen - 4.3 million people of working age within an hour’s drive of the city.

Birmingham has 5 universities: Aston University, University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, Newman University and University College Birmingham, home to over 65,000 higher education students. Within an hour of Birmingham there is access to over 340,000 students and 120,000 graduate from the 15 universities within reach.

Foreign investment

During the 2014 - 2015 financial year, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP area attracted 73 new investments, 9% more than the next highest LEP, with investors including Jaguar Land Rover, KPMG and Amazon. This investment created 4,739 new jobs - nearly 1,800 more than any other UK LEP.

Site Selection listed Birmingham as the second-best place in Western Europe to invest, behind only Barcelona, after it thwarted London in the rankings in 2014. Site Selection’s Best to Invest list focuses on factors including growth in new facilities, capital investment, economic strength and infrastructure.

Incoming organisations have cited Greater Birmingham's transport links, affordable business space and strong talent pool as major draws.

Office space / districts

Birmingham is a developing city and the latest project aims to generate in the region of 1.8 million sq m of new floor space.

Business Birmingham has created six Economic Zones within the city and has formed a bespoke business offer to support businesses move into the region.

1. Advanced Manufacturing Hub - Aston

2. City Centre Enterprise Zone - City Centre

3. Tyseley Environmental Enterprise District - Tyseley

4. Life Sciences Campus - The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston

5. The Food Hub - Witton

6. Longbridge ITEC Park - Longbridge

* Business Birmingham