Living in the West Midlands
Enjoy a high-quality lifestyle for less
Located in the heart of the United Kingdom – and home to 4.7m people – the West Midlands is one of Europe’s most dynamic, forward-looking and ambitious metropolitan regions. It’s also home to one of Europe’s youngest (and most culturally diverse) populations, and a place with a proud tradition of openness and tolerance.
But despite being less than 1.5 hours away from London, being directly connected to 400 global destinations by air, and with 90% of the UK population accessible within a four-hour drive, the West Midlands is still a very affordable, flexible and spacious location.
And by spacious we don’t just mean physical space. We mean space to grow professionally and personally, space to explore new opportunities, and space to think clearly about how you want to shape your future, and live your life.
That’s why more people looking to escape London decide to move here rather than anywhere else in the UK, why more than one in two of our graduates chose to stay on in the area after completing their studies, and why so many companies – both big and small – increasingly chose to bring both their businesses and their people here.
Live. Learn. Earn.
Major employers don’t simply up sticks and move because they feel like a change of scenery, graduate talent doesn’t hang around if there aren’t decent, high-calibre jobs on offer, and you don’t tempt people away from a city as captivating as London without good reason.
So, what exactly is it which attracts so many to the West Midlands region?
In trying to answer that, we’ve spoken to our residents, interviewed companies (and their staff) who’ve already made the move, and looked closely at what are regarded as being the core elements for creating and maintaining a high-quality place where people want to live and chose to stay.
As a result, we’ve identified three key ‘quality of life’ elements where the West Midlands outperforms many other destinations (in the UK, Europe, and across the world) which we’ve summarised simply as ‘Live’, ‘Learn’ and ‘Earn’.
You can read some more about these three liveability factors below, or you can jump straight to our 40-page Live Learn Earn brochure and get the full West Midlands story.
Live
Boasting three great English cities – Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton – the West Midlands is packed with incredible amenities including some of the UK’s best schools, universities, cultural assets, shops and restaurants, healthcare, sporting facilities and public amenities. In addition, our warm, welcoming nature has made us one of the most diverse regions in Europe, and you’ll find people from 190 different countries all living here.
We also offer a vast amount of choices when it comes to lifestyle options. We’ve every kind of home, in every kind of location, and there are expanses of glorious English countryside right on your doorstep.
Further, we’re less than two hours by train from London, Manchester, Oxford, Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol, while by car you can reach over 90% of the UK’s population within a four-hour drive. We’ve also an international airport which connects you to 400 global destinations.
Another reason people come here is that their money goes a lot further. Or to put it another way, the price of an average home is 60% cheaper than in London, and rents are far less too. The cost of living here is very often much lower than many other places across the UK, Europe, and beyond.
Learn
People in the West Midlands get access to superb education at every level. The region is home to over 400 schools rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, and we’re one of the highest-ranked places in the UK for secondary and primary academic attainment. Our universities are similarly high performing and include four of the world’s top universities and four of the world’s top business schools.
Further, of the 22 higher education institutions which are within a one-hour drive time of the region, 63% have been awarded the UK’s Teaching Excellence ‘gold’ ranking.
When you then factor in the region’s twenty further education colleges and 6th Forms, you soon realise that the volume and quality of our academic provision is some of the very best in Europe.
But we understand that people not only want to learn and grow academically and professionally but also personally – and we’re geared up for anyone passionate about life-long learning and broadening their horizons.
To help with that we have hundreds of different groups and classes you can get involved in, a vast range of volunteering and community opportunities, plenty of health, wellbeing and sporting activities to explore, and an incredible mix of cultural and leisure events to enjoy.
Earn
Enterprising, talented and hard-working people have always earned a very good living from the West Midlands, and today is no different.
The region’s booming £117bn economy, highly skilled talent pool, and low costs, have made us one of the UK’s most compelling locations to do business. Combined with that, unprecedented levels of investment into the region’s infrastructure means are continually creating exciting commercial opportunities which in turn are generating thousands of new, high-value jobs.
We also produce the most employable graduates in the UK (beating those from Oxford, Cambridge, London and everywhere else), which means by studying here you can gain a qualification which employers are prepared to pay for.
So, whether starting a business, making an investment, taking advantage of our employment opportunities, or looking to study, we offer everyone who comes here the chance to earn a fantastic salary, earn an outstanding qualification, or earn a great return on their investment.
