This month, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Regional Growth Tracker was released. While Yorkshire’s press didn’t have anything to say about it that would please its readers, the North West’s press was rightfully delighted to report on the results. The North West came joint second in a ranking of the UK’s fastest growing regions in the second quarter of 2015.
The region that boasts some of the UK’s most exciting cities like Manchester and Liverpool experienced a 0.6% growth in its economy, and was only beaten to the top-spot by London. The regional enterprise manager for RBS has put this down to the thriving media and tech industries in the region. As a B2B PR agency based in the North West, we certainly agree that our region is being taken more seriously in the media and tech realm, particularly with the prosperity of MediaCityUK. Not only that, our region has always had a forward-thinking and creative culture, so it’s great to see this translated into entrepreneurial spirit.
It’s also safe to say that we’re seeing a lot of support for start-ups in the North West. Liverpool and Cumbria have both introduced accelerator hubs that give guidance to entrepreneurs in the early stages of business growth. Next year, Manchester will launch its own start-up hub – Entrepreneurial Spark – that will offer guidance to SME owners in their quest for success. It’ll be interesting to see what the alumni of this hub go on to achieve.
The spokesperson at RBS also notes the boost in leisure facilities in the North West, citing the expansion of the premises for The Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire as an example. Evidently, the North West isn’t just the ideal place to establish a business- it’s the place to live a fun social life.
Let’s hope that the hard work of the North West’s entrepreneurs continues to pay off and that one day our economic growth even beats that of the capital…
Alex Brown has just started his career at Skout PR and will be a regular contributor to the Skout blog.
