4 READING:


A greater town than many cities?


Reading has those constructive clustered business ‘parts’ too: for example, IT, telecoms, bioscience, professional services, pharmaceutical, logistics, leisure and retail.


‘Synergy’ began to be used colloquially during the 19th century, ironically around the time that Reading began to awake as a market town, gained the boost of the Great Western Railway and established its 3B’s major business footprint – biscuits (Huntley & Palmers) beer (H&G Simonds brewery) and bulbs (Suttons Seeds) – on the way to becoming the greater Reading that it is today.


‘Greater’ that is in its UK economic influence and GDP input, worldwide connectivity and status, and its own local geography, which arguably stretches west-east between M4 Junctions 12-10 and north-south from Emmer Green to Spencers Wood.


‘Greater Reading’ has long since outgrown its borough council boundaries, notably south of the M4 at Shinfield with the new Science Park development. Today ‘Greater Reading’ does not have any defined perimeters, but it certainly exists in the minds of astute and aspiring business leaders.


The population of ‘Greater Reading’ is growing too. In 2015, Reading’s urban area had an estimated population of 232,662 *, making it the largest settlement in the UK without city status. Yet it is the undisputed heart of the vibrant and commercially important Thames Valley region.


* Office for National Statistics (ONS)


‘Greater Reading’ has got things right for business


Reading is a town that operates as a city and is perceived as a city.


Aristotle’s supposed saying: ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ has always left me somewhat questioning its true meaning. It shouldn’t because I’ve lived in Reading all my life, writes John Burbedge


Reading absolutely proves Aristotle’s statement – it has a synergy that has made it greater than the sum of its parts.


‘Synergy’, today viewed as a modern business buzzword, actually derives from the ancient Greek word synergia meaning “working together”.


In business terms, synergy is teamwork businessmag.co.uk


that will produce an overall better result than if each person within the group was working individually toward the same goal.


Clustering is similar, a positive concentration of like-minded talent that develops and enhances a business specialism – the ‘parts’ in Aristotle’s greater ‘whole’.


Why else would it have been be acclaimed as ‘The UK’s most successful economic city’ (PwC/Demos Good Growth Index); ‘Most prosperous UK city outside London’ (Barclays survey); ‘A top 25 European Business City of the Future’ (FDI European Future Cities Awards, 2016)?


Cities Outlook 2017, the economic performance barometer of the UK’s top cities produced annually by Centre for Cities, continues to rank Reading as one of the most dynamic for business growth, skills and wages in the country.


Continued overleaf ... READING NUMBER 1 CITY UPDATE – JUNE 2017


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