Big cities will remain vital economic engines, but growth potential is increasingly visible much more widely across towns, rural communities, coastal areas and places on the edge of major urban centres. At GC Insight, we deliver business support advisory and enable better informed decisions for bigger positive impacts through leading data and tools such as Growth Flag. Our work shows the need to effectively target resources, even if there is ambition to grow everywhere. In this article, we explore changing trends in business locations and growth, how business support has started to adapt, and what increased devolution could mean for future targeting and delivery of support.
There is little denying that big cities play a major role in the growth of the economy. They are quite often the location of choice for large businesses, not only for helping to bring in talent and investment, but also to reap the benefits of access to infrastructure, support and clusters of similar firms. Manchester's St. John's neighbourhood, for example, illustrates this. Transformed over recent years, it is the city's newest creative district home to Aviva Studios, Versa Studios, fresh new offices, co-work and living spaces, and businesses such as Booking.com and Cloud Imperium. It is just one example of a strategic development performing regeneration and now attracting talent and jobs in an inviting modern environment.
As the way we work has changed, the move to hybrid and rise of remote working has also seen the place of business change. While for some businesses the traditional office has firmly remained the place of work, increasingly spaces are being purpose-built for new ways of working and in particular more flexible hybrid spaces. That can be seen in big cities like Manchester, but also far beyond. Many towns and small cities across the country have been considering how to repurpose increasingly under-utilised spaces on high streets, with co-working and similar work hubs becoming a common feature. The shift in workplace though is certainly not confined to urban areas, with significant growth in businesses starting up and moving to more rural areas.
An article by Shopify recently discussed the geography of entrepreneurship. The conclusion? A major rise in the registration of rural-based stores on their platform, not just in the UK but across numerous major markets. One key example referenced by Shopify President Harvey Finkelstein was Blakely Clothing: a clothing brand setup and still based in Melton Constable, a small village in Norfolk. Today, the brand is part of the Sunday Times Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies, is the primary sponsor of Norwich City FC, and trades internationally. Its massive growth has been achieved while remaining based in rural Norfolk and reflects a wider pattern of rurality being an increasingly viable option for growing a business. This trend is evident across multiple datasets and spans multiple sectors, not just retail.
Often, rural businesses can be much harder to spot and attention can focus on more well known and easier to reach urban areas. The linked Shopify article showcases some of the growth that platform has seen in rural areas, and at GC Insight rural business growth patterns are something we watch closely through our data tools and in advising on approaches to business support.
Despite the UK being one of the world's most urbanised countries, many parts of the country do have significant rural settlements. Whether in Cumbria, Devon, Yorkshire, the North East of England or the Scottish Highlands, rural business activity needs to be a key consideration for business support. For example, in the Great South West region spanning from Wiltshire to the Isles of Scilly, 40% of active businesses are located in rural geographical areas. In some combined authority areas like the North East, business geography is particularly diverse with some districts seeing 50% of their businesses located in rural areas and this growing as a percentage share over recent years, while other districts part of the same authority are overwhelmingly urban. Using our Growth Flag data tool, we can highlight specifically which businesses are expected to achieve high growth over the next year and guide place-specific approaches. The analysis shows that in many areas, businesses based in rural areas are not materially less likely to grow, and sometimes are actually more likely to grow than their counterparts in urban areas. Our Growth Outlook 26 report also shared analysis highlighting that 'intermediate areas' - those outside of but on the cusp of urban areas - showed significantly greater levels of broad growth potential for 2026 than other areas. The report highlights Perth and Kinross, Solihull, Telford and Wrekin, Aberdeen, Oxfordshire and Southwark as some of the top areas with business growth potential for 2026, making a list with varied geographic dimensions.
Councils have been trialling and rolling out a range of initiatives to revitalise local places from opening new community hubs in Barnsley, to repurposing high street spaces in Bolton, and setting up employment support centres in Stockton-on-Tees. Business support has also been adapting to new ways of doing business, although in a challenging and varied context. The end of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the current fragmented funding landscape for business support programmes has seen different levels of activity, although increased targeting of support has become more common. In areas such as the North East, increased focus has been given to rural businesses and populations over recent times with Mayor Kim McGuiness particularly championing rural communities saying that new measures "prove that we mean business in our villages and towns, as well as our cities". In 2024, the North East Combined Authority announced a £17 million funding package towards a rural business advice service as well as local food production and nature recovery programmes.
Though the use of on the ground insights and data intelligence tools such as Growth Flag that provide the latest insights across all businesses in addition to predictive business growth and risk scores, business support teams are targeting their efforts on the ground in local places. For non-mayoral areas this is increasingly important with limited resources but still high demands for value and economic returns, while mayoral and devolved areas are using data as a core pillar to intelligently and effectively enhance their support offer. In city regions or large local authorities, ensuring targeted interventions for different parts of the economy and area is key, with different district's and neighbourhoods often having varied infrastructures and environments for supporting business growth. The latest data can help better guide where efforts are made and is a key task particularly in regions with varying business growth prospects, as shown in our Growth Outlook dashboard.
Andy Burnham’s national profile has helped put devolution, place-based growth and the idea of "growth in every postcode" firmly into the political debate. Whatever shape future national policy takes, the direction of travel is clear: local and devolved leaders are likely to be expected to play a greater role in deciding how growth funding, business support and economic development interventions are targeted. Burnham pledged to setup ‘No.10 North’, with a specific remit to drive growth not just in the North but all parts of the UK. It is set to focus on the reform of essential utilities, reindustrialisation, and the regeneration of places. This is expected to see regional Mayors given more autonomy to focus efforts - backed by cash - where they feel they can have the biggest impacts. Greater local control could allow combined authorities and local partners to design support around the real geography of their economies, rather than relying on national assumptions about where growth happens. However, local control also brings a sharper delivery challenge, which if resources remain finite, will need leaders to make transparent, evidence-led choices about which firms, sectors and places are best positioned to generate additional growth from targeted support. While to date, national policy has tended to focus heavily on certain sectors and certain places such as through the Industrial Strategy, greater devolution could see that change.
The geography of business growth is no longer simply defined by urban versus rural, or confined to major cities. Increasingly, growth is instead dependent on curated conditions within a place such as infrastructure, networks and entrepreneurial culture. For policymakers, this means moving beyond geographic assumptions and towards more targeted, evidence-led interventions informed by granular-level insights.
With continual technological advances and shifting personal and business behaviours, business now looks quite different to just half a decade ago. In a more devolved and locally-led system, those with the strongest understanding of the data and the ability to act on it will be best placed to drive greater positive impacts.
At GC Insight, we work with local places across the UK to plan business support strategy, action plan economic development interventions, and deliver innovative data and tools to guide better informed-decisions. To find out more or for a chat about the latest insights, connect with our team.
