Edinburgh named best British city for business outside of London

Business magazine Management Today conducted in-depth data analysis to rank the largest cities and towns outside of London on how attractive they are for business.

It assessed 63 urban areas across 15 criteria including the scale of the private sector ecosystem, the strength of innovation, the number of high-growth businesses, access to a skilled workforce and quality of life.

Edinburgh received top billing for being a “vibrant, future-facing city”, that boasts a strong economy and business base, a highly productive and skilled workforce, a track record of innovation and a “much-vaunted quality of life”.

Edinburgh received top billing for being a 'vibrant, future-facing city', that boasts a strong economy and business base, a highly productive and skilled workforce, a track record of innovation and a 'much-vaunted quality of life'.

Overall, Scotland performed well in the index, with Glasgow securing fourth place.

Scottish business and enterprise minister Ivan McKee said: “Edinburgh and Glasgow are both great places to do business. There is some fabulous work going on in a number of sectors that we're very proud of, be that digital, tech, fintech, financial services, life sciences, the space sector or the energy sector, combined with some great universities.”

Management Today’s editor Kate Magee said: “Where is the best place to do business in the UK? For too long, London has greedily hogged the limelight. But business life doesn’t end at the M25.

“The UK has a series of thriving business communities and we want to celebrate their dynamism. Our in-depth research highlights how the UK’s key towns and cities really compare, with some results that may make you think again about your location.”

A report last week singled out Edinburgh as the UK’s top city for innovation outside of London.

The Scottish capital’s innovation infrastructure was the best of the 39 major UK cities analysed by global property consultancy Knight Frank.

Its UK Cities report found that Edinburgh was buoyed by the research outputs, spin-out formation and patent generations at its universities, as well as its research institutions and biomedical funding bodies attracting funding estimated at more than £2.2 billion since 2015.

Despite its top billing for innovation, Edinburgh ranked just tenth for its digital and physical connectivity - a measure that takes into consideration fibre availability, capacity and performance, mobile network capabilities and proximity to data centre services.

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