A Place to Grow & Invest? Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has topped yet another poll which cements its position as the happiest region to work and live in the UK. A Lloyds Banking Group conducted Happiness Index indicates an increased level of 6% in contentment among NI people, as published by the Financial Times in April 2021.
People are our Greatest Asset
This past year has been extremely challenging for all of us, but it’s also presented a time of great opportunity. Opportunity for many of NI’s key industries, academic institutions and, of course, the people behind them. We should celebrate the Northern Irish people, as they are our greatest asset. With high quality talent in abundance, the current workforce demographic offers one of the youngest populations in Europe, and interestingly, one of the most loyal.
Resilience
Resilience is key, and the NI professional services workforce has fluidly adapted to homeworking, with high profile Belfast based businesses even celebrating client wins as a result. With a competitive cost of doing business and a renowned quality of life, Northern Ireland presents outstanding benefits for employees and employers alike. Property costs, for instance, are around 75% lower than London and 60% lower than Dublin, and, in line with lower living costs and the associated high living standards, salaries can be around 30% and 20% lower compared with London and Dublin respectively.
Connectivity & Collaboration
Digital connectivity is of significant importance to investors, as our world moves increasingly online. With over 400Km of fibre networks beneath our streets, NI benefits from quality connectivity. And, thanks to its fibre foundations, Belfast is to be one of first cities in the UK to benefit from a city-wide roll out of 5G.
Collaboration is rich and well embedded across all sectors, and this ability for public, private and academic communities to work together has been instrumental in our success.
The cherry on top, is our unique international links. Northern Ireland continues to prove itself as a hotbed for investment, particularly in R&D. For companies looking to serve both UK and EU markets, NI is the ideal location for trialling, manufacturing, and commercialising products for both markets, from the same place.
We at Wilson Nesbitt, have invested in directly promoting NI with our upcoming campaign World Class Belfast, which looks at how the city, its businesses, its organisations and locale, frame it as the best place to work, live and grow. We have been talking to some of Belfast’s most successful business pioneers to find out their insights.
We’re excited about the future and the opportunities our changing world will bring. We’re eager to support like-minded businesses with their sights set on growth. We want this World Class Belfast conversation to continue.