‘WEST LONDON: THE WORLD’S MOST CONNECTED PLACE’ RESEARCH LAUNCHES AT GLOBAL PROPERTY CONFERENCE
West London Business (WLB) today launches a report evidencing West London as the world’s most connected place. The launch will be attended by senior business leaders and influencers gathering at the MIPIM 2019 global property conference in Cannes, France.
Following a roundtable discussion attended by West London business leaders in autumn 2018, where it was suggested that West London might be the most connected place on Earth, the WLB team has since been piecing together the data that confirmed the hypothesis.
WLB first tested whether London was truly “the most connected” amongst a benchmark group of ‘Global Cities’ (defined by A. T. Kearney) and then used a reduced dataset to compare London’s sub-regions.
Following many months of research, the team have completed the synthesis of all the data, and have been able to confirm that West London is indeed the world’s most connected place.
The study considers ‘Connectivity’ as the ability for people, ideas and information to move across physical or virtual boundaries to do business locally and globally. More specifically, the report sets out to find the world’s most connected place, defining connectivity through the lenses of: Culture; Transport; Internet; and Ease of doing business.
As the WLB team integrated national and city level metrics, London emerged as the world’s most connected global city, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. They then drilled down further examining the connectivity of each of London’s sub-regions and were able to confirm that West London is the most connected part of the city, and therefore can be considered as the world’s most connected place.
West London’s global hub airport Heathrow and excellent road & rail connections, along with its diverse population (44% of West London residents being born outside the UK) and international food culture are an immense strength. Fast broadband is the city and sub-region’s Achilles heel and an area where London policy makers are starting to make accelerated public and private sector investment a priority.
Responding to the report, Liz Peace CBE, Chairman, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation said:
“This is a great piece of research, well done to West London Business for detailing these findings.
“OPDC has long made the case that investment in Park Royal industrial estate is crucial in securing North West London’s place as a world-class business hub. The new HS2 station coming to Old Oak will be the largest built in a century, with 250,000 passengers using it every day, strengthening West London’s position as the world’s most connected place.
“This report emphasises that our mission to transform Old Oak and regenerate Park Royal will benefit business and culture for many years to come.”
Mark Jackson, Director of Planning, Fairview New Homes said:
“We’re delighted to read that West London leads the way in so many areas. West London is so well connected it is an obvious place to do business and encourages us to plan positively for future developments in the region. The great connections give us and other organisations in our industry an incentive and confidence to invest. West London has set a high benchmark and we feel sure it will continue to be the world’s most connected place for future generations!”
Andrew Dakers, Chief Executive, West London Business, added:
“We’ve long championed West London as a perfect base for companies of all sizes to locate. Having this backed up by empirical evidence only adds to our confidence that the West London will continue to attract world-leading companies like GSK and Diageo that will leverage the global cultural connections and mindset, transport and internet infrastructure, as well as ease of doing business.
“Through our partnership with PropTech innovators Deetu we have been able to bring the research alive with the West London Explore interactive map.”
West London Business & partners will be exhibiting at MIPIM in Cannes (12-14 March 2019) to promote West London as the best place to do business, champion the sub-region’s connectivity strengths and raise awareness of new opportunities to invest in West London. Come and visit us at our panel in the London Pavilion and find out more about why West London is the best place to do business.
Download full report: West London: The World’s Most Connected Place
An interactive map, developed by Deetu, brings alive West London as a place and the themes explored in the report, can be accessed at https://explore.westlondon.com
West London Business’ MIPIM sponsors:
Lead Sponsors: Fairview New Homes Ltd; L& Q; G-Smatt Europe; SEGRO
Content Partner: Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation
Associate Sponsors: Child Graddon Lewis; Deetu; Interland Group; Kier; Sharp Business Insights
