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Liverpool Business Lifeline is a new website aimed at providing useful advice and guidance for businesses affected by the current economic downturn.
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With a population of 434,900, Liverpool is the eighth largest city in the United Kingdom.
Situated in the North West of England, it has good road and rail connections, along with rapid trans-global sea routes. There are also two international airports nearby: Liverpool John Lennon Airport in the south of the city, and Manchester Airport less than an hour's drive away.
Major regeneration projects, inward business investment and an increase in jobs for local people have seen an upturn in the city's economy in recent years.
Liverpool has so many more advantages for businesses wanting to locate here compared to other parts of the country:
- Significant opportunities exist in our employment areas where European Objective One money has helped us to create strategic sites with high quality new buildings for industrial and office uses;
- Liverpool's current top rent for Grade A office space is £20 per square foot, which is much lower than most areas of the country - particularly London and the South and therefore makes the city one of the most attractive places to relocate to in the UK;
- Salary costs are lower in Liverpool than elsewhere, for example 25% less than London;
- Liverpool can offer a great quality of life with more reasonably affordable property prices than many parts of the country, whilst in 2008 its city centre rocketed back to being the 5th most popular retail destination in the UK following a £1bn investment by Grosvenor at Liverpool One;
- Liverpool's excellent public transport network makes commuting so much easier.
Liverpool City Council is committed to the future of the city and supporting local businesses. This involves encouraging firms to locate to the city, to grow here, earn a profit and reinvest to create new jobs for local residents.
In May 2009, Liverpool became the first council in the region to back a drive to strengthen links between small firms and local authorities when we signed The Federation of Small Businesses' (FSB) Small Business Engagement Accord. The accord, which is part of the FSB's Keep Trade Local Campaign, highlights the need to preserve local services and networks to help small companies survive. It includes 14 principles which promote the importance of listening to the views of small businesses, and nominates business engagement champions from the community to encourage greater consultation with a wider range of business and community leaders.