18 focus on heathrow & west london
The West side story
As a business location West London is bigger and more powerful than
you may think. Richard Willsher of The Business Magazine explains
The next time you rail into Paddington
or drive the M4 or M40 you might like to
consider this. The six London Boroughs
of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham,
Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow with their
1.4 million people have a population greater
than Birmingham’s and an economy bigger
than Frankfurt’s. Three quarters of a million
people work there at 67,000 businesses and
the region contributes £32 billion each year
to the nation’s economy. Within the area lie
Heathrow, the world’s busiest international
airport and Park Royal, which is Europe’s
largest industrial estate. Vital statistics to die
for if you’re looking to attract businesses and
investment to your backyard.
Yet the noise surrounding London as
an investment location is dominated by
Docklands’ towers, the City’s financial services
hub, the East End’s Olympic ambitions
and the West End’s swanky squares. But
if travelling to meet your colleagues or
business associates in, say, Hong Kong, New
York or Silicon Valley is important to you,
where would be a more convenient location
for your office, Hackney or Hillingdon? Just
for the record, you can’t fly directly from
London City Airport to any of these places
but Heathrow serves 160 destinations around
the world and offers 23 flights a day to the
Big Apple alone.
www.businessmag.co.uk
existing major businesses have committed
Closer to home business organisation West
London Business (WLB) calculates that within
a 150-mile radius of West London there
is a market of 20 million people. It is not
surprising that many of the companies that
are located in its 20 or so business parks or
along the main transport arteries are service
businesses that supply this population.
Heathrow Airport alone through which more
than 67 million passengers move annually
provides jobs for 70,000 according BAA,
which owns the airport.
Ian Nichol, director of the West London
Alliance, which aims to promote the
economic, environmental and social well
being of the West London community,
says: “West London offers businesses a
range of unique strengths and particularly
interconnectivity with national, European
and international markets. Which is why
many company headquarters or other
office investments have been made in West
London. It is also increasingly attractive to
high-technology companies including IT and
biomedical businesses because of its skilled
labour force and locational advantages.”
WLB’s deputy chief executive and head
of investor development Russell Harris
says: “West London continues to attract
new international investors from Europe,
North America and Asia, whilst many of its
their future to the area. Just look at the
Canon Europe decision to grow their HQ
presence at Stockley Park. In the past few
months we have also seen a number of high
profile moves from central London to West
London. These include, shopping channel
QVC moving to Chiswick Park, the drinks
company Diageo moving its London HQ to
Park Royal, and GE Capital moving to its own
building, the Ark in Hammersmith, following
in the footsteps of media company Open
TV, who moved there last year. To support
future investment in West London, we will
launching a number of area and sector
investment propositions at MIPIM 2010, the
world’s largest property and investment
show in Cannes in March, where West
London will have a presence on the London
stand. These will help remind people of
the strength and momentum we’ve always
had in the West London economy. They will
outline how strong the creative and media,
ICT, bio/pharma, food and drink, transport
and logitics sectors are, as well as giving
vital information to potential occupiers, and
investors and developers considering new
opportunities”.
Although large and well-known companies
like GlaxoSmithKline, Heinz, Adobe, IKEA and
many more have premises in West London,
perhaps what is not so well appreciated is
just how many small business are located
there. Roughly a third of the jobs, that’s
250,000 of them, are at SMEs.
All told, West London presents an impressive
business case and has a critical mass of
economic activity that on its own dwarfs
that of many of Europe’s major cities. So the
next time you scythe your way from the west
toward central London spare a thought for
the economic miracle that you are passing
through. Without it London would be a very
different city indeed.
Useful contacts:
The West London Investor Development Team:
Russell Harris
020-8607-2500
russell.harris@westlondon.com
The West London Alliance
http://www.westlondonalliance.org
Above left: Fountain at Wembley Stadium
Below: Chiswick Park
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2010