Business in Milton Keynes Area

What this section contains:

• Key message relating to business in the Milton Keynes area.
  
  
• Digest of supporting facts.

Key Message

The Milton Keynes area is a successful economy committed to business growth.

Supporting Facts

Milton Keynes is regarded as the most successful of the ‘New Towns’ built since the war.

Commercially it creates around 5,000 new jobs a year.

Milton Keynes currently receives more inward investment enquiries than any other area in the South East of England.

Milton Keynes’ location makes it ideal for business in the UK and Europe. It has attracted major business to the area in the last 25 years and it encourages reinvestment and long term expansion fro companies already here.

Courtesy of GTImages

There has been a continued growth in the number of workplaces in Milton Keynes, which is estimated to be around 9,900. This equates to a growth of 13.5% in Milton Keynes, which compares favourably with the England and Wales total of 5.3% and that South East total of 6.4%.



The number of employees in Milton Keynes has continued to rise over a five year period. Between 1999 and 2004, it is estimated that there was an increase of 9.5% in the number of employees in Milton Keynes to around 133,600. This compares favourably to England and Wales as a whole, which increased by 1.3% over the same period.

Currently about 20,000 people who live in Milton Keynes work elsewhere with 24,000 commuting in from adjacent areas.

About 40% of the workforce is in the skilled, managerial or professional categories.

Milton Keynes has a relatively low unemployment rate at 2.5% compared to the UK rate of 2.7%. (Source: The Learning Campus March 2006).

The average earning of employees in Milton Keynes is slightly above average for England and Wales but relatively low when compared to other major employment centres in the South East. Milton Keynes average annual full time earnings is £23,325 compared to £25,167 in the South East as a whole.

The current population of Milton Keynes is estimated to be 224,800. In 2004 the population of Milton Keynes was 216,700 (representing a rise of 18.4% between 1991 and 2001, compared with a rise of 3.7% in the UK in the same period).

MK has a relatively young age profile, with 46% aged under 30 compared with 41% nationally.

17.6 million people live within 90 minutes drive. (Source: MK Council Population Bulletin 2005/6)

Currently there are 7,500 employment establishments. 78.5% are in the service sector, 11.9% in the production sector with 16.1% employed in the production sector.

The Milton Keynes Labour Force is dominated by the service sector, with 31% employed in the distribution, hotel and restaurant sector and a further 25% within the banking and finance sector.

86% of businesses employ 20 or fewer people (Milton Keynes Economic Partnership Summer 2000)

Currently there are over 500 overseas owned companies in Milton Keynes, representing 8% of the total companies in Milton Keynes and 19% employment. There is a high representation of European, American and Japanese companies.

Major employers and headquarters in the area include Alps Electric, Argos, Asda, Aston Martin, Bank of Santander, BP, British Telecom, EDS, Marshalls, Konica Minolta, Daimler Chrysler UK, Suzuki, The Volkswagen Group and The Open University.

Courtesy of GTImages

Milton Keynes’ uniqueness is that it has vast amounts of land still to be developed and is one of three expansion areas in the South East (Dartford, Ashford) ear-marked for significant commercial and population growth in the next 20 years..

75% of Chief Executives stated that Milton Keynes was a good, very good or excellent location for their business in a survey (Undertaken for the Chamber of Commerce).

In a survey of office workers, Milton Keynes was ranked second overall as a business location, ahead of Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester and London. Milton Keynes was top of the fifteen cities surveyed for conveniently located offices and also for being clean and unpolluted (Source: Britains best Working Cities, Healey and Baker, July 1997)

Milton Keynes was ranked 4th for its transport network and 5th for overall business environment out of 48 cities surveyed in a major UK wide survey on business location (Source: Britains Best Cities for Business, Black horse Relocation, September 1997).

Milton Keynes is an ideal location for warehousing and distribution facilities by virtue of its proximity to the main UK population centres and its relatively easy access to the strategic road and rail networks.

The major employment centre within the city remains Central Milton Keynes (CMK) with 25,000 jobs. As Milton Keynes is expanding at such a great rate, there will be a need to extend office space over the next few years. Work is currently being carried out with the construction of the the Hub, a high density development of offcie space, retail and apartments covering 5.8 acres. Included will be

• 90,000 square metres (over 960,000 square feet) of retail, entertainment and other ‘destination’ uses. Briefly this will be 392 affordable apartments, 84 serviced apartments and specialist retail facilities with quality café bars and restaurants totalling 8,165 sq metres of retail space.
  
  
• A new conference and exhibition facility - to provide a focus for the business quarter
  
  
• Two new hotels, a 279 bedroom Jurys and a Ramada Inn with 175 rooms (now open)

Other city centre developments include

• A new canalside ‘destination’ promoting tourist-spend in the city;
  
  
• Cultural uses - including new performance and heritage facilities and cultural facility in Campbell Park;
  
  
• A new civic and community ‘hub’ including a learning resource centre and voluntary sector projects; and
  
  
• New residential development – providing approximately 4,800 homes in new residential communities and mixed urban environments across the city centre including Campbell Park.

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