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Tyneside tops cost-efficiency league

NEWCASTLE offers best-cost savings for businesses relocating from London, a study has shown.

Newcastle has beaten other English cities to come out on top in a report, which shows businesses they could save more than £133m over a 10 year period if they relocate from the capital.

The report, compiled by property agents Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), has analysed 14 locations outside of London and has highlighted the potential cost savings that could be made by moving a head office function of 500 people to cities including Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester.

Ben Cullen, head of Cushman & Wakefield¹s national office agency team, said: “Companies are under pressure to deliver shareholder value and drive down costs and greater emphasis is being placed on cutting both real estate and employment costs with relocation to an alternative location outside of central London now an option for many companies.”

A central London occupier moving to a 50,000 sq ft (4, 645 sq m) building in England would save the most by heading to Newcastle. This takes into consideration six financial costs of professional fees, fit out, project management, redundancy costs, recruitment costs and relocation allowances paid to employees.

Mr Cullen cites Cobalt as an example of a site that offers businesses the quality buildings and access to skilled workforces they are looking for, alongside the added benefits of a dedicated transport infrastructure and strong sense of business community.

Cobalt is the UK’s largest office park with private sector occupiers that include Procter & Gamble, Banco Santander and Orange and public sector organisations onsite including North Tyneside Council, Northumbria Healthcare and Job Centre Plus.

Guy Marsden, director of Highbridge, developers of Cobalt, added: “We welcome the findings of this report which is underlined by the range of international occupiers already based at Cobalt. The park has a vibrant community with an excellent platform for companies to establish and grow their businesses.”

The C&W report also showed Newcastle to have the lowest average wage bill in England.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .