London is often considered one of the best places in the world to set up a business. That might be why it receives thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs every year. However, when we look at the criteria that make a place great for business in the UK, London is hardly all there is to offer.
Swindon locals would be pleased to hear that a recent Virgin Money survey found the top 15 cities in the UK to start a business officially includes Swindon Town. In fact, they made the top ten.
These selections, including the likes of York, Oxford, Gloucester and Plymouth, all boasted a number of key amenities that made them fertile ground for new enterprises, from commute times to internet speeds, and rates of innovation. Swindon came eighth for a range of factors, which we’ll explore below, along with some facilities not considered in the rankings.
Access To Professional Services
Swindon’s small businesses face a lot of challenges. As a more rural region, with a considerable distance to the UK’s coast, and a topography that features a lot of chalky hills and forests, many of Swindon’s SMEs have a higher reliance on driving and mobility for both logistics and serving customers.
These types of businesses have an increased risk of occupational accidents and need to be aware of relevant types of injury claims that might come their way. In addition to the legal coverage, a need for specialist business insurance packages is higher, but readily available across the southwest region, with a number of specialist services serving the southeast of the UK with remote cover and specialist knowledge.
Signs of Promise
Swindon boasts one of the negative rates of business churn amongst those ranked in Virgin Money’s list, which is part of what suggests it’s a place showing signs of growth already.
While towns like Cambridge and Oxford boast much higher rates of innovation - judged by the number of patents registered per 100,000 people - Swindon’s real value lies in being a place with typically low commute times (only 0.82% are over 60 minutes) as well as falling CO2 emissions per capita, above average in the ‘happiness indexing’ and a fairly low unemployment rate.
These statistics point to a town that benefits from being decently connected, despite its location. For small businesses, this paints a picture of a motivated, skilled workforce that is in employment, and no glaring issues in other areas like high street recovery rates where Swindon isn’t ranked highly, but equally don’t fall far behind.
Finally, is Swindon’s impressive range of technology and logistics businesses that call the town home. BMW/Mini, Dolby Labs, Intel, Panattoni (taking over Honda’s famous former site in 2021) and the UK Space Agency all host head offices, while W H Smith’s distribution centre lies in the area too.
For SMEs, there’s a great opportunity as a result of these names to be suppliers, and collaborators and win larger contracts. It’s also an area that housed the 3G and 4G research and development for a number of big telecommunications providers like Motorola, Alcatel and Nokia, making it a place of an excellent opportunity for the tertiary service industry, if your SME relies on mobile communications.
Swindon wouldn’t be the first name on many people’s lips when they think of a great incubator and home for a small business. However, the numbers don’t lie. For a place nestled in the quiet, chalky hills of Wiltshire, miles from the coastline and from the capital, Swindon is quietly making its name as one of the UK’s ideal places to take the ultimate leap in entrepreneurship.
