Scotland’s financial industry growth outstrips London

Jobs growth in Scotland’s financial and related professional services (7 per cent) has outpaced that of London (5 per cent) over the last 12 months, a new report has revealed.

TheCityUK’s ‘Enabling Growth across the UK 2018’ report shows that while London remains the country’s largest financial centre, the industry truly is a national asset, making a significant economic contribution to regional and national economies.

Collectively this amounted to £174bn in 2016, with two thirds of the 2.3 million industry jobs based outside London.

In its report TheCityUK outlines fifteen recommendations to drive growth in regional financial and related professional services centres.

Miles Celic, chief executive officer at TheCityUK, said: “One in every 14 British jobs are in financial and related professional services. These ‘City jobs’ aren’t just confined to London, they’re in financial clusters all across the UK, in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester.

“The ongoing strength of our financial centres across the country underlines what a national success story this industry is. Building on this success will need a supportive business environment and greater emphasis on local expertise and local decision making. A one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t be good enough.”

According to the report, the biggest financial centres outside London are Edinburgh and Manchester, which has overtaken Birmingham this year to take third place. In terms of specific sectors, after London Manchester is the UK’s biggest legal services and management consultancy centre; Watford has the biggest accounting cluster; Glasgow is the biggest insurance centre and Edinburgh has the largest centre for banking and is also a major international location for fund management.

TheCityUK report sets out the facts and figures about industry employment and economic contribution across the UK’s regions and nations. It also makes 15 recommendations to enhance the industry’s role in the broader economy and ensure the UK’s continued global competitiveness. These recommendations focus on partnerships and engagement, diversification and fostering a competitive business environment.

TheCityUK’s recently appointed network of City Chairs in Bristol, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle will help drive these recommendations forward as they champion and promote the industry within and between their cities and regions and nations.