London voted Internet capital of Europe

Citation

(2001), "London voted Internet capital of Europe", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950baf.001

London voted Internet capital of Europe

London voted Internet capital of Europe

Keywords: Internet, Business centres, Europe

Of Europe's top business people, 39 per cent perceive London as the most likely centre for Internet-related work, according to the European Cities Monitor, an annual survey carried out by international property consultancy Healy & Baker. This is well ahead of Frankfurt, in second place with 7 per cent and Paris with 5 per cent.

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  London maintains its No. 1 position as Europe's top city for business, followed by Paris and Frankfurt.

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  Glasgow moves up four places to 6th position for internal transport and five places to 7th for the quality of life for employees, but its overall position drops two to 19th.

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  Manchester moves up one place in the overall league to 13th. It also scores well for availability and cost of office space, and for qualified staff.

The Internet is seen as the factor to have the greatest impact on business over the next ten years, although in the case of France and Italy, EU enlargement is the key issue. This is the first year that the survey has included questions relating to the Internet.

In the overall league, London has maintained its No. 1 position as the top city in Europe for business since Healy & Baker first launched the European Cities Monitor in 1990. The survey questions senior business people from 500 of Europe's top companies about their favourite business locations, their perception of 30 main cities in Europe on a range of factors and on their investment plans.

On individual factors London also performs well this year, coming top for seven out of the 12 factors considered, slipping in only two factors – "freedom from pollution" and "quality of life for employees".

Other findings

Madrid and Barcelona are the two cities to have risen fastest in the overall league table of the top 30 cities in Europe for business since the survey was first carried out in 1990. Madrid has risen ten places to reach 7th position this year and Barcelona five places to 5th.

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  London comes first in all of the top four factors considered essential for locating a business: easy access to markets, customers and clients; availability of qualified staff; external transport links and telecommunications.

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  London maintains its lead over Frankfurt as the future financial capital of Europe and Brussels as the political capital.

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  Germany is the best manufacturing location, followed by Spain and Poland.

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  London has the second best public transport after Paris, but the best international airlinks.

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  Staff productivity is second best in London to Frankfurt.

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  Of UK interviewees, 48 per cent (compared with 37 per cent of all) believe that London's position has not been affected by the UK staying out of Monetary Union. However, 31 per cent of UK interviewees (44 per cent of all) believe it has had a "very" or "quite negative" effect, and 16 per cent (17 per cent) a "very" or "quite positive" effect. However, most believe that staying out of the Monetary Union over the medium term will harm London's position as a financial centre.

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  Looking at 35 cities across Europe, London is 6th on the list for future expansion over the next five years of the 500 companies interviewed. This is behind Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Moscow and Madrid.

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  Worldwide, the favourite city for expanding existing representation is New York, followed by Buenos Aires, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Expansion to new cities puts Sao Paulo top of the list, followed by Buenos Aires, Tokyo, New York, Shanghai and Beijing.