Look at the north-west

North-west England, home to 6.8 million residents, is the third largest UK regional economy, generating over 10 per cent of UK national income. Traditional population migration has been reversed, with 12,000 more people moving into the region recently. The region is densely populated – 480 residents per square kilometre against a UK average of 244 – and varies between 4,000 and 70 within the region. It contains 350,000 companies (1,700 of them overseas owned) including 75 per cent of the UK’s top 100 enterprises, and the largest concentration of universities in Europe.

Gross Value Added (GVA) is now nearly 90 per cent of the UK average, and regional output is very near UK norms. Manufacturing output (22 per cent of GVA and over half a million employees), however, has risen at only half the rate of the UK as a whole, while key growth areas like the electrical, optical, pulp, paper and publishing sectors are under-represented. The service sector is increasing in importance, and accounts for over 48 per cent of all employment – still slightly less than in the rest of the country.

Wages are 90 per cent of the national average, but a smaller tax take and lower living costs make disposable incomes comparable with others. While employment rates have increased, low levels of working-age adults and high levels of inactivity mean a relatively small percentage of the population in work. Recent job creation has benefited females, and migration has also hit male employment. Skill levels are generally low, making one in five skilled job vacancies difficult to fill, and 20 per cent of employees do not have the right skills for the job. The region has above average numbers of small and medium-sized businesses, but start-ups and survival rates are relatively low. Manufacturing investment has fallen less sharply than elsewhere.

Service leavers returning to the region generally find affordable housing, family networks and a good road and rail system, allowing flexible travel to work. Merseyside and Greater Manchester are the economic, commercial, financial, educational and cultural hubs of the region, containing multinational manufacturers, as well as banks, insurance companies, contact centres and other service industries.

Opportunities and skills shortages

Training is generally recognised as necessary to overcome existing skills gaps, but many employers are still reluctant to provide this function. Sectors growing fast include energy, water, public administration, distribution, hotels and restaurants, construction, real estate, business services, education, and health and social work. There is constant demand for construction trades such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

The engineering and manufacturing sectors face recruitment and training challenges as a result of skills shortages. There are opportunities in distribution and transport, including drivers, mechanics and people in supervisory positions. Business and other services, particularly in the retail and leisure sectors, also offer employment. Public administration and defence industries recruit as and when contracts allow. The communications industry may be recovering from recent difficulties but the aircraft sector is still down.

Employers

East Manchester and Liverpool city centre are crucial to the economic regeneration of the region. Two urban regeneration companies are leading co-ordinated regeneration of these areas. Plans are also in progress to transform Blackpool, redevelop Barrow and west Cumbria, and establish Daresbury Science Park. The region’s rural areas are being reclaimed and transformed into community woodlands that deliver a range of direct social and economic benefits

The north-west contains such major ICT companies as Brother, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, ICL/Fujitsu and Sun Micro Systems. The Lowry and the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester are helping to restore a once-redundant dock area, providing major tourist attractions and employment opportunities.

More than 400 new jobs are to be created at a new printing facility in Merseyside, a new 500-seat contact centre in Cumbria will open up to 800 jobs, and contact, communications and distribution centres are planned. By 2015, Manchester Airport is expected to generate between £2 and £2.5 billion, providing 85,000 jobs – 33,000 in the north-west. (It already generates nearly £600 million of income annually for the region and £1.7 billion nationally.)

Salaries

A rough guide to salaries in the region is given below. This is inevitably very general and there will be variations between industries and also in various parts of the north-west.

Manual£9,000 to £13,000

Semi-skilled and supervisory £12,000 to £17,000

Skilled £15,000 to £25,000

Managerial £20,000 to £35,000

Executive £32,000 to £45,000-plus

House price guide

The following prices are a rough guide only to property prices and are liable to overnight change as financial factors in the country as well as in the region affect housing.

Location 2-bed flat 2-bed terrace 3-bed semi 4-bed detached

City £110,000 £80,000 £130,000 £230,000

Town £95,000 £70,000 £115,000 £210,000

Country £80,000 £60,000 £100,000 £200,000