NEWS & EVENTS
National news
Half urban businesses long to join country set
From The Financial Times
By Jonathan Guthrie, Enterprise Editor
Published: January 13 2007
About half of urban business people would cheerfully relocate to the country if they had the chance, according to a survey. The finding should strike a chord with London commuters who are finding the daily grind particularly irksome in the wake of big new year rail fare increases.
Respondents to the survey by YouGov, the pollsters, were mostly owners of small companies or senior executives employed by them. About two-thirds of those interested in relocating envisaged moving their businesses or setting up new ones. The rest dreamt of moving as employees.
Cornwall and Devon were the most alluring locations, closely followed by the Scottish Highlands. Cornwall Pure Business, the inward investment body, was presumably banking on such a result when it commissioned the survey. In the past 10 years the two English counties have become aspirational destinations for middle-class south-easterners. The south-west gained a net 300,000 people over the period.
Norfolk was the rural location least idealised by itchy-soled bosses. This may reflect the county's fame as the home of Alan Partridge, the excruciating fictional DJ and chatshow host. Few wanted to move to west Wales either. This closely resembles Cornwall, but its lanes are not choked during holidays with spotless Range Rovers driven by management consultants.
London was the urban area business people were keenest to forsake. The finding was consistent with a survey last summer that found south-easterners were the most miserable and stressed people in England.
"There are very few people working in cities who would not rather be somewhere else," said Sir John Banham, chairman of Johnson Matthey, the chemicals business, and former director-general of the CBI. Sir John, one of a group of City grandees who promote their native Cornwall, lives close to Land's End, although he admits he stays for much of the week at a London flat. Sir John believes that remote working, much-heralded in the 1990s but slow to materialise "is now set to accelerate" thanks to broadband and changes in business culture.
Tom Thorne, managing director of Candyspace, a mobile phone content retailer and advertising agency, plans to move the four-person business from Chiswick to Cornwall. "For me, it is about quality of life. I have lived in London for seven years and that is enough. The urban environment can be stimulating but also claustrophobic. I will have more head space in the country," he said.
Mr Thorne said European Union relocation grants that Cornwall could provide as the poorest English county, played a part in his thinking. Cornwall is popular with relocating creative businesses for lifestyle and image reasons too.
But the reality is a big city is the best place to set up and run a small business. Survival chances are greatly improved by having a large, well-off population of potential customers.
An official of Ken Livingstone, London mayor, said: "It is one thing to say you will move to the country, but another to actually do it."
The main barriers to relocation cited by respondents were fears that profits would fall, high costs, possible lack of access to technology and employee discontent.
It is not known how many rural business people dream of escaping mud, midges and nosy neighbours for the bustle and anonymity of a city.
Cornwall Pure Business is a service of Cornwall Enterprise