Glasgow Business . 31
www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
G
lasgow is a fully fledged economic powerhouse with major assets and
atributes; it is no longer a city being regenerated. Glasgow Chamber of
Commerce has set out 10 reasons highlighting why this is the case. Firstly it’s a question of scale:
Glasgow has economic size and size maters. A big city like Glasgow offers a
larger labour force for businesses to work with – in many other smaller communities, companies find atracting the right employees a major headache. Greater Glasgow, which has
1.7 million inhabitants (as opposed to the city proper which has 600,000), is a great area for enterprises to draw upon. Te city is the fourth largest in
the UK, is among the 30 biggest in Europe and is ahead of cities such as Amsterdam, Lyon, Dusseldorf, Helsinki, Brussels and Copenhagen. Figures suggest Glasgow
contributes 32 per cent of Scotish economic output, 35 per cent of its jobs and 36 per cent of its exports. Te second reason is
intellectual firepower: Glasgow is a bright city. A large share of the population has a minimum of a graduate degree. Te Centre for Cities ranked
Glasgow second only to London in the top 10 large UK cities for the people’s skills. With Liverpool having 23 per
cent of its population at graduate level, Birmingham 26 per cent, Manchester 33 per cent and Glasgow 41 per cent, the ‘giant sucking sound’ of London just isn’t as influential in Scotland or in Glasgow. Businesses have not only
a good quantity of potential employees but also the quality in terms of a superior skills base to many other parts of the UK. Te third reason is the
leadership factor: Glasgow has a strong track record of co-ordinated, ambitious leadership. It is one of the most difficult
assets to create because it depends on a range of factors, including relationships, trust and tacit knowledge. A city where government, academia and business find it
relatively easy to work together is one with an asset other cities find really difficult to replicate. Tis is shown in powerful
recent examples, particularly the city’s performance in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the work done together in securing the £1.13 billion City Deal (see box on page 32). Ten there is the range of the
city’s economy: Glasgow has a diverse economy. Once Glasgow suffered from
an over-reliance on one sector: heavy engineering. Glasgow is no longer a one-industry town. Te Glasgow Economic
Commission identified six sectors with real potential for growth: low carbon industries, financial and business services, life sciences, tourism and education. In addition, food and drink is a
strong player, particularly the whisky industry. Major industry players such as Edrington Group, Diageo, Pernod Ricard and William Grant have headquarters or major plants in the city. Glasgow is Scotland’s media
“Once Glasgow suffered from an over-reliance on heavy engineering. Glasgow is no longer a one-industry town”
hub and is a world-leading centre of ship management. Also, the city is a centre for
innovation in the energy sector: Glasgow is the renewables capital of Scotland. According to Glasgow City
Council, there are 5,000 people working in the energy sector in the city with major energy companies ScotishPower and SSE both major players. Research suggests there are
currently 2,100 jobs in renewable energy in Glasgow, making the city the biggest concentration of renewables jobs in Scotland. Both offshore and onshore wind feature prominently among the work being conducted in the city.
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