focus on west london
West London is a region that operates in plain sight as a major business hub for the UK economy. From the trains speeding along its Thames Valley corridor, to aircraft taking off from its global gateway, and the commercial vehicles using its motorways and highways – not forgetting its vibrant but unseen digital virtual highways, it is plain that ….
Busy, busy West London does the business
Take a map. Draw a rough line from Uxbridge east on the M40/A40, then south down the A312 and eventually link to Sunbury. Go west on the M3, join the M25 at Junction 12 and head north back to Uxbridge at M25 Junction 16. Draw in the M4 linking Junctions 4B and 3.
You will not only have highlighted some of the UK’s most important roads and encircled the nation’s most important airport, but will also have depicted a giant capital letter ‘B’, writes John Burbedge.
Without doubt, this ‘B’ stands for ‘Business’ for this is the vibrant outer West London commercial corridor – a key part of one of the busiest most dynamic business sub-regions in Europe.*
Lying at the confluence of the trade flowing into and out of London along the M40, M4 and M3 corridors, the outer West London area is arguably slightly misnamed – probably since it lies largely inside London’s M25 motorway-ring.
Maybe it should be called something else – a more relevant economic rather than geographic name, maybe ‘the Heathrow Heartland’ – because it does have a different business vibe about it than the City.
However, the names that really matter are the thriving go-ahead SMEs, companies, business parks, importers-exporters, distributors and professional services firms that operate so successfully in this hive of commercial activity – a busy ‘B’ indeed.
From local suppliers to global traders; Thorpe Park’s southern leisure resort to northern Uxbridge, currently bonding its community by beginning a Business Improvement District (BID) scheme, this outer West London area is home to a wealth of business variation.
At its centre lie world-known Heathrow Airport – serving over 206,000 passengers per day – and 30-years-young Stockley Park – Britain’s first business park but still a contemporary location for UK and European corporate bases.
Meanwhile in Hayes, fresh ‘hits’ are being created at The Old Vinyl Factory, EMI’s former vinyl-record processing plant. When complete, this huge regeneration will provide a new community with 640 homes, offices, commercial and leisure facilities including restaurants, shops and gardens.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – NOVEMBER 2017
*The West London Business organisation covers a region regarded as the UK’s second largest powerhouse – a £50 billion-plus economy underpinned by 100,000-plus businesses. This supportive group includes representation from companies large and small, plus key stakeholders, chambers of commerce, and seven local authorities – Hillingdon, Hounslow, Harrow, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Barnet, and Brent.
westlondon.com continued overleaf ...
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