Why Nottingham's high quality of life is crucial for investment promotion

By Emma Smith
Marketing Intelligence and Strategy Development Manger

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone. Even those earning some of the highest salaries are feeling the squeeze due to their proportionate outgoings. But thankfully Nottingham is, on the whole, providing a better value, higher quality of life for its residents than London. Maybe that is an obvious statement, but it is an important one when it comes to investment promotion.

Most of the proactive lead generation work we do at Invest in Nottingham is targeting London businesses, often but not exclusively, in their scale-up phase.  It is understandable that businesses might want to be in the capital city with all of its associated benefits, but they come at a very high price for both the businesses and for the people working within them. Businesses that move to Nottingham can grow faster because high quality people, services, accommodation and other costs aren’t as expensive as they are in London. Very little is traded off and the green spaces, the better value housing, the clean air, the affordable child care, access to university expertise and highly skilled staff are compelling. 

It has been a while since we have looked at some of the price comparisons but Numbeo’s research suggests that rental prices in London are 178.6% higher than in Nottingham, childcare (nursery / pre-school) is 66.4% more in London and a monthly pass for local transport is 117.7% more in London. 

Bringing in new businesses to Nottingham is good for the local and regional economy even if the existing employees come with them (therefore no direct job creation in the short term). New opportunities are generated for our local professional services and others in the supply chain, there are wages to be spent at the theatre, the coffee shops and the gyms, and there are more people chatting to their friends back in London about their increased quality of life in Nottingham…and so the cycle continues.

If you know of anyone who is considering relocating their business from London to Nottingham (or any other city of course) please let the Invest in Nottingham team know and we would be happy to support them. Remember the services are always free at the point of access.