Originally Posted by
Dobbo_Dobbo
Trouble is business always locates in the best place for their networks. Say a Manchester based tech company grows quickly, it might come under pressure to relocate close to LHR for better access.
Anyway, lets how the service is retained in 2018 and beyond.
Another factor for locating business in certain locations is personnel. People living/working in Manchester and its surrounding areas might not like the idea of moving to London/SE/Home Counties due to factors such as cost of living, change of commuting patterns, lifestyle, distance from friends and family etc. The same applies in reverse (e.g. BBC moving a few departments to Salford a few years ago). For example, many years ago my mother decided to leave her job when the company she worked for moved their office location to Manchester as it meant having to take a 45min train journey each way daily versus driving for 15mins each way daily.
On the flip side, there are of course some people who will move with their jobs, particularly if the alternative is unemployment, which is something another family member did 30 years ago by uprooting his young family from Liverpool to Hull when the firm he worked for moved their HQ.
If the cost of moving offices means losing personnel due to their unwillingness to re-locate and having to go on a recruitment drive to replace them, that will play a huge part in deciding whether to re-locate or not. Some skillsets are not as universally available as others.