Why Wirral?
Location
Wirral is a location that’s made for business. At the heart of the UK, close to Liverpool, Cheshire, North Wales and Greater Manchester. It’s an international gateway that’s full of opportunity.
Few places can match Wirral’s connectivity for businesses. Our key business sites are all adjacent to the motorway network, putting you just a few minutes from Liverpool, Manchester in less than an hour and Birmingham in under two.
Fast trains to London take just over two hours from Chester and Liverpool. Two excellent airports – Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester – serve Wirral, with flights to more than 200 international destinations and a major air freight hub less than an hour’s drive away.
Opportunities
Wirral is perfectly placed to take advantage of the huge opportunities that will create thousands of jobs in the UK in the next few years.
The UK is the only major European country with a growing automotive industry and Wirral is within 3 hours of 95% of the country’s car production. Expanding production at nearby GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota and Bentley offers supply-chain and ‘reshoring’ opportunities.
More than a thousand offshore wind turbines are planned for the Irish Sea and Wirral is fast-becoming the main hub on the west coast of the country, for manufacturing, operations and maintenance. Cammell Laird, DONG Energy, Siemens and RWE are all active here.
Workforce and Skills
More than 3 million people live inside a 45 minute peak-time commute area that employers recruit from, and around 7 million live within an hour. Close to 832,000 residents in this area are of working age.
Manufacturing employment is a strong component of the workforce profile, with proportionately more residents working in various manufacturing activities than in the region or across England as a whole.
Wirral’s recruitment catchment has more than double the national proportion of people working in high technology (East West Locations, 2014).
Cost-Effective
Keeping control of overheads is key advantage to locating your business here.
Wirral offers some of the lowest operating costs in the UK despite high levels of training and skills. According to research carried out in April 2014, salary rates in the Wirral catchment are competitive judged against a range of UK locations with average engineering salaries around £1,000 per annum lower and typical wage below most Midlands and Northern cities.
Commercial property costs, whether for development land, industrial units or offices are substantially lower here than most comparable places, adding to overall competitiveness of Wirral.
The availability of the largest financial incentive package on any Enterprise Zone in England is an additional benefit, offering companies business rate reductions and enhanced capital allowances.
Support
Businesses locating in Wirral enjoy the most supportive environment in the UK.
Wirral Council and its partners work seamlessly to provide a full range of business support services to help you.
Our team of business advisors can help with recruitment; sites and premises; skills and training; financial assistance; exporting and business development.
