focus on slough Making real news: the undisputed facts


We’ve heard a lot from ‘over the pond’ about so-called fake news. Well, here are the undisputed concrete yet buoyant facts that ‘float the boat’ for Slough being one of the best places in the UK to live and work. (Yes, that claim is supported by a professional fact-based survey, as you’ll read below)


• Sited near London and major motorways, Slough’s location close to London and Heathrow makes it a natural UK and international transportation hub for global travellers and, importantly, inward investors to ‘UK plc’.


• Slough offers easy road links to the rest of the country, being located near the intersections of the M4, M40, M3 and M25.


• Slough has a large, skilled workforce catchment, established companies and business infrastructure – not least at the major employment providing SEGRO Slough Trading Estate, one of the largest in Europe.


• It has cost-effective business occupancy rates appreciably lower than London’s and almost 96% of local premises have superfast fibre broadband access.


• Unsurprisingly perhaps, Slough has the UK’s highest concentration of international corporate HQs outside of London. (SEGRO’s Bath Road office portfolio in Slough was purchased by AEW Europe for £325 million in 2016.)


In addition to these business attributes, last September, Slough was hailed as the top UK town or city in which to work – beating Manchester and Cambridge in the top three – following a nationwide survey by recruitment specialist Glassdoor. The survey compared the UK’s 50 most populated towns by assessing factors including location, employment opportunities, cost of living and job satisfaction.


20 businessmag.co.uk THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – MARCH/APRIL 2018


Glassdoor’s research shows Slough offers a good quality of life for employees, with a median salary of £35,000 per annum, the average house costing £390,000, and an advertised 26,000 job vacancies.


With a GVA 30% higher than the national average, Slough was also rated as the ‘most productive place per worker’ in the UK, ahead of London and Reading, according to the Centre for Cities Outlook 2017 study.


From 2004–14, Slough’s population grew more than any other UK city, at around 1.8% per annum. Today Slough is home to 4,600 businesses and its highly competitive and dynamic business environment contributes around £8 billion to the national economy – double the UK average.


Nancy Lalor, acting CEO of Learning to Work, a member of the Slough Chamber of Commerce, was reported as not surprised by the Glassdoor revelation: “We’ve got so many head offices that are based in Slough,


so many ‘corporates’, and an amazing trading estate with over 350 businesses on it, so I think it’s really on the up.


“There’s so much new-build, so much development going on in the town, every few months the whole look of the town is changing and I think people are inspired by what’s going on.”


Dr Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist, said Slough is in a part of the country that offers “pleasant environments” meaning “an increased quality of life for employees”.


He added: “Although people in London are generally satisfied, it has proven not only to be an expensive place to live, but also an ultra-competitive city in which to find a job.


“With large multinational businesses establishing themselves in Slough, along with high average salaries and close


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