• Pages
01 UK Attractiveness Index
02 Welcome
03 Executive Summary
04 FDI and the UK’s Economy
05 FDI and the UK’s sectors
06 Green Investments
07 The Best Cities To Invest In
08 Recommendations For Investors
09 Find Out More
10 Appendix: Methodology

The Best Cities To Invest In

Ranking the UK's cities for their attractiveness to overseas investors

England’s capital city may lead the way as a financial hub, but there are other cities and regions across the UK that are ripe for investment. In partnership with Cebr, we analysed the 50 largest cities in the UK and ranked their current investment attractiveness according to a newly created index. The index is based on eight economic indicators in three different categories: growth potential; local skills; and local infrastructure. You can find out more about this in our methodology.

The leading locations for investment

Explore the pinpoints on the map to find out more about some of the top locations the attractiveness index recommends for overseas investors looking to invest in the UK.

#1 Inner London

#2 London

#3 Outer London

#4 Brighton

#5 Oxford

#6 Greater Manchester

#7 Birmingham

#8 Edinburgh

#9 Reading

#10 Cambridge

The leading locations for investment

Explore the pinpoints on the map to find out more about some of the top locations the attractiveness index recommends for overseas investors looking to invest in the UK.

#1 Inner London

#2 London

#3 Outer London

#4 Brighton

#5 Oxford

#6 Manchester

#7 Birmingham

#8 Edinburgh

#9 Reading

#10 Cambridge

FDI attractiveness index – the UK's top 50 cities ranked

City
Growth Potential
Local Skills
Local infrastructure
Index score
Rank
Inner London
83.1
96.9
59.2
79.8
1
London
81.7
92.4
53.5
75.9
2
Outer London
67.2
89.1
50.1
68.8
3
Brighton
84.1
33.3
34.8
50.8
4
Oxford
45.4
36.8
65.1
49.1
5
Greater Manchester
42.1
63
31.8
45.6
6
Birmingham
64
35.5
36.5
45.4
7
Edinburgh
38.3
42.5
52.3
44.4
8
Reading
69.6
26.2
34.7
43.5
9
Cambridge
42.5
31.9
55.5
43.3
10
Manchester
61.1
27
38.6
42.2
11
Exeter
42
20.7
58.2
40.3
12
Peterborough
73.3
11.1
33.2
39.2
13
Milton Keynes
76.3
17.7
20.1
38
14
Glasgow
31.7
35.6
44.8
37.3
15
Southampton
51.9
19.8
40.2
37.3
16
Bristol
47.3
31.2
32.2
36.9
17
Northampton
52.5
11.7
41.1
35.1
18
Winchester
57.6
21.7
24.5
34.6
19
Leeds
29.9
33.2
38.7
34
20
Warrington
54.4
13.8
32.3
33.5
21
Preston
44.8
12
41.8
32.9
22
Swindon
55.4
9.3
30.4
31.7
23
Liverpool
28.7
25.1
40.9
31.6
24
Portsmouth
37.7
20.3
36
31.4
25
Derby
41.2
17.1
33.8
30.7
26
Cardiff
35.5
21.8
34.1
30.5
27
Solihull
45.5
16.2
28.8
30.1
28
Bournemouth
52.5
20
17.8
30.1
29
Wolverhampton
48.9
10.6
30.3
29.9
30
Leicester
45.8
14.5
28.5
29.6
31
Chelmsford
48.4
15.7
23.7
29.3
32
Stockport
36.8
19.9
28.8
28.5
33
Nottingham
19.5
18.9
41.9
26.8
34
York
12.7
33.8
31.7
26
35
Newcastle
20
20.5
35.5
25.3
36
Coventry
30.9
20.2
24.5
25.2
37
Kirklees
27.3
13.9
27.4
39.2
38
Sheffield
21
24.9
22.6
22.8
39
Stoke-on-Trent
36.4
6
25.6
22.7
40
Doncaster
33.1
5.1
29.5
22.6
41
Aberdeen
6.3
31.2
31.7
21.9
42
Belfast
7.3
17
40.8
21.7
43
Hull
10.1
4.3
37.8
17.4
44
Plymouth
9
16.5
26.1
17.2
45
Wakefield
18.8
4.4
25.3
16.2
46
Sunderland
16.7
4.1
27.6
16.1
47
Rotherham
20.4
8.1
19.5
16
48
Bradford
9.8
15.3
22
15.7
49
Swansea
6.4
15.0
21.5
14.3
50

Breakdown by pillar

The pillars of growth potential, local skills and local infrastructure make up the scores on our attractiveness index. Each of these pillars is measured by two or three indicators, sourced from national datasets. The index also includes Cebr’s GVA forecasts for each of the cities in the growth potential pillar.

The growth potential pillar draws on data from GVA forecast (2024) and new enterprises per 10,000 people (2021).

The local skills pillar is determined by the share of the population with a qualification at NVQ4 level or above (2021), the number of economically active people in the city (2022) and the number of universities in the city.

The local infrastructure pillar includes data related to online connectivity – fixed and mobile – (2022), major road length relative to the population (2021) and public transport use (2021).

Figure 13 graph: Top 10 cities for growth potential

Figure 14: Top 10 cities for local skills

Figure 15: Top 10 cities for local infrastructure

Recommendations For Investors

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