A ‘Great place to do business’

Some of the Manor Royal business community with Cllr Louise Goldsmith. Manor Royal is a Crawley success story and is the largest business park in West Sussex and the Gatwick Diamond

Crawley has one of the highest rates of growth in private sector jobs and some of the highest wages in the UK, according to The Centre for Cities 2020.

Their report compares economic statistics across 63 cities and large towns in the UK,

Councillor Peter Smith, said: “This report is great news and reinforces our message that Crawley is a great place to do business.”

“I’m especially pleased that our Employment and Skills Programme is starting to bear fruit, with this report showing a dramatic increase in the number of residents with a high level qualification.”

The report has found that Crawley has: the ninth highest average wage in the UK of £617 per week (£46 more than the UK average)

The highest proportion of private sector jobs in the UK (84,000 private sector jobs, only 11,000 public sector). This is a ratio of 7.3 and the UK average is 2.9

An average gross value added (GVA) of £66,063 per worker, making it the 19th most productive city. GVA measures the contribution to the economy of each individual

The 10th highest private sector jobs growth in the UK and the highest in the south east with a 3.1 per cent (2,500 jobs) increase. The 11th highest number of patents granted at 19.48 per 100,000 people.

The seventh lowest rate of residents with no formal qualifications at 5.2 per cent.

While only 36.9 per cent of Crawley residents have high level (NVQ4 and above) qualifications – which ranks the town 25 out of 63 – this has increased from 22.7 per cent in 2016, which put Crawley in 60th place.

Centre for Cities focuses on the UK’s 63 largest towns and cities for its reports.

The report can be found at www.centreforcities.org