Stay In The Loop.

Find your place as north-west SME office space demand continues to rise

It’s been a turbulent decade for businesses as a whole – so as we enter the last year of the 2010s, it’s a good time to take a look at the levels of demand for north-west SME office space.

Just before the end of 2018, a House of Commons Library Briefing Paper was published showing a range of business statistics for the UK as a whole, including business size and location.

Some of the headline figures include:

• A 63% increase in the number of UK businesses between 2000 and 2018.
• A total of 5.7 million UK businesses in the private sector in 2018.
• Around three quarters have no employees (i.e. are self-employed individuals).
• About 96% are micro businesses (i.e. fewer than 10 employees).
• Over 99% are SMEs (i.e. fewer than 250 employees).

Not all of these are office-based – many self-employed individuals may work from home, on location or from rented workshops for more industrial roles – but it gives a good indicator of the relative sizes of businesses in general.

That makes over 5.4 million private sector businesses up and down the UK with less than 10 people working for them – but how does north-west SME workspace demand stack up against the other regions?

A growing north-west business community

We’re proud of the vibrant business community that exists in the north-west, as our serviced office space in Manchester sees a rich and diverse range of tenants who can share ideas in the communal spaces in our buildings.

So we’re not surprised that in 2018, the total number of businesses in the north-west continued to rise by 3% to reach 545,000.

This growth rate matches London – and we are equally proud of our well appointed serviced office space in London adjacent to Canary Wharf, helping to provide good quality workplaces for new and growing businesses in the capital.

Of the other UK regions, the south-west scored a 3% growth rate and the north-east, starting from a relatively low benchmark, grew an impressive 14% year-on-year to reach 163,000 enterprises in 2018.

Every other region achieved growth of 1% or less, including a fall in the number of businesses in six regions and in the UK total for the first time this century.

Why you should choose serviced office space in Manchester

If you’re setting up a new business or trying to grow your brand, it’s important to be based in a prosperous region, and in one with an established business community for networking opportunities.

Our north-west serviced office space ticks both of these boxes – with well over half a million private enterprises across the region and one of the fastest growth rates signalling a prosperous future as well.

For those in the south, our serviced office space in London puts you on the doorstep of Canary Wharf and in amongst over a million other businesses.

We choose our locations carefully – our serviced office space in MediaCity, for example, has been at the heart of massive growth and regeneration in recent years and given our tenants a real head start.

If you’re looking for new SME business premises for 2019, we would encourage you to think carefully too, and then choose our serviced offices in London and Manchester as the clear best option.