Look at Yorkshire and Humberside

With over 5 million people and 270,000 businesses contributing to an economy now worth over 75.2 billion, this region ranks among the top third of the world’s national economies (outpacing the European average for the last five years), and includes five of the world’s top 10 companies. Its five great cities have become major drivers of business growth.

Bradford’s GDP is around £6 billion, while its manufacturing base has recorded a rise of 2.8 per cent employment compared to a national fall of 5.2 per cent. Its service sector contains IT, financial services and environmental technologies, and is predicted to deliver an extra 6,000 new jobs in the city, 2,000 of which will be graduate positions. Over the next few years, further construction will make the city one of the top six in the UK. Wool and textiles are still important in its economy, but today’s fastest-growing employment sectors are the professional, commercial and service industries – including tourism. Start-ups account for 12 per cent of its businesses, while the city’s population is growing at twice the national average.

Leeds (GDP of £9 billion and population 719,000 – the second largest of any metropolitan district in England) is the economic capital of the Yorkshire and Humber region. It is one of the UK’s top 15 employment centres, and one of the largest UK financial and business service centres (GDP £3 billion), accounting for around 111,000 jobs. Leeds is another large manufacturing centre, with 2,100 businesses employing some 45,000 people, with strengths in advanced engineering, printing, chemicals and food industries. Service industries provide over half the total employment while the media, communications and advertising sector has grown by more than 20 per cent in the last two years. The past decade has seen £2.5 billion of investment, with almost £5 billion more committed to current and future projects.

York has a dynamic business environment and a knowledge-based economy. Science City is a world-class cluster of knowledge and commerce, centred on York University to bring academic ideas and business applications of technology together to help innovative companies. This initiative now contains 54 companies and 3,700 scientists. Health sciences is another speciality. Over 100 IT and digital companies are based within the city, employing more than 2,400 people. The city’s economy also blends manufacturing, particularly food and engineering, with a growing importance as a business and tourism centre (10,000 conferences a year, and the National Railway Museum, Castle Museum and Jorvik Viking Centre).

With a GDP worth over £7 billion a year and economic growth ahead of the national average, Sheffield (population 500,000-plus) has a powerful economy. National companies have based strategic operations in the city, which is also home to market-leading creative, digital media and ICT operations. Sheffield is a centre of digital specialism, including games, animation, film and TV, video, sound, radio and photography businesses. England’s fourth largest city has shopping, leisure and cultural centres. Its economy was built on steel, engineering and cutlery industries and, while it is still a huge manufacturing and engineering centre (annual output of £1.2 billion), it has recently seen growth in service industries.

Hull (population 250,000 and annual turnover £8 billion) has superb rail links and three international airports nearby. It is a city-port, offering freight and passenger services to destinations throughout Europe and beyond, as a major maritime commercial centre on Britain’s east coast. Many firms traditionally processed feedstuff and foodstuffs, timber, chemicals, paints and varnishes. Others serviced maritime operations including fishing, shipping, transport, distribution, banking and insurance. Manufacturing now includes aircraft production, abrasives, can manufacture, bottling machines, medical and surgical goods, drugs and clothing, using modern technology, while another area of recent development has been petrochemicals.

The region contains over 1,000 square miles of National Park land, including the Yorkshire Dales and, along its 120-mile stretch of coastline lies Robin Hood’s Bay, with its famous warren of tunnels used by smugglers during the eighteenth century. It also has 3,000 listed buildings, eight universities, three higher education colleges and 42 further education colleges to educate a 2.5 million-strong workforce.

Opportunities and skills shortages

There is a continuing shortage of LGV drivers, while Yorkshire bus companies have an ongoing requirement for trainee drivers. The shortage of qualified tradesmen, gas fitters, electricians, and plumbers continues. Other skills shortages are in administration and engineering. There is a great deal of employment of the type seen in big cities – financial, legal, accountancy – while call and contact centre work is readily available.

Employers

Many of the UK’s largest financial institutions (the Yorkshire Building Society, Bradford & Bingley Building Society and Provident Financial) have headquarters in Bradford, while Leeds created over 46,000 new jobs during the last decade and is expected to provide 45 per cent of employment growth in the region over the next one. Some leading names (First Direct, GE Capital, Alliance & Leicester, Halifax Direct and Direct Line) in banking and insurance services are based in the city, while the Council (33,000) and Leeds Healthcare (14,000) are major employers, as are private-sector companies like Asda, Yorkshire Bank, Barclays, NatWest, Midland and TSB Lloyds banks, British Gas and British Telecom, which all have regional offices there.

The Abbey and Nationwide Building Societies, HSBC, Irwin Mitchell, Kingfield Health and Aviva have based strategic operations in Sheffield, with labour availability being enhanced by a recruitment and training service known as JOBMatch, which offers new employers a free service. Hull has a thriving business environment that hosts leading international companies such as BP, Northern Foods, Smith & Nephew and ARCO.

Salaries

Manual £11,000 to £14,000

Semi-skilled £13,000 to £20,000

Skilled and supervisory £16,000 to £28,000

Managerial £22,000 to £35,000

Executive £35,000 and upwards

House price guide

The following prices are a rough guide only to property prices and are liable to overnight change as financial factors in the country as well as in the region affect housing. Property prices are around 70 per cent of the UK average.

Location City Town Country

2-bed flat £150,000 £120,000 £100,000

2-bed terrace £165,000 £130,000 £110,000

3-bed semi £300,000 £230,000 £180,000

4-bed detached £350,000 £300,000 £250,000