Economy
20 mins to London
Just twenty minutes by train to London
Kings Cross / St Pancras
3 airports within 1 hour
Access to three International airports
in less than 1 hour
8m+ skilled people
Access to over 8m+ highly skilled
workforce within 1 hour
4 Top 10 Universities
Easy access to 4 of the World's
top 10 ranked universities
Stevenage provides a robust, resilient and vibrant business community with strong business networks and expert support and services.
It is home to world class industry expertise in aerospace; defence; with key legacy linkages to British Aerospace, electronics; and space and satellite technologies; life sciences; electronics and ICT along with their supply chains who have made their home in the town, supporting a vibrant ecosystem of leading science, technology, engineering and manufacturing companies.
Stevenage supports an impressive number of research intensive global economy businesses, who directly contribute to its impressive dynamic knowledge economy.
“Stevenage is the beating heart of Space manufacturing, a world leading industry”
Top 3 Town/City
for starting up a business
Population
Stevenage has a population of 88,100 (ONS 2020)
63%
of the population at working age (16-64) (ONS 2020)
Stevenage supported the 1st Enterprise Hub in the East of England “inspiring entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions and where entrepreneurial spirit is truly valued and celebrated”.
As a business destination, Stevenage upports you with:
- a strong ecosystem of business support services to encourage your early stage, high growth start-up and ambitious scale up business to accelerate growth and succeed.
- flexible and tailored business support and guidance
- training and strong business networks.
All of which enhance the local and regional economy and contribute to high value job creation.
Stevenage is home to a number of global centres of excellence, including Airbus Defence and Space for spacecraft design and manufacturing, supporting space exploration and satellite technologies, placing Stevenage in the global arena for the Space industry. “fostering the next generation of world-class scientists and biotechnology firms in Britain”
Stevenage is home to the UK’s largest cell and gene therapy cluster and the third largest globally outside of the US.
Its highly entrepreneurial and innovative supportive business environment is home to a world class science base, with outstanding research institutions and capabilities and include; its world-leading science park and capabilities which are at the centre of Europe’s largest cluster of cell and gene therapy companies and are of global significance.
Stevenage is also part of the R&D ‘Golden Triangle’ for life sciences including London, Oxford and Cambridge and is home to GSK’s global R&D Centre and Stevenage Biosciences Catalyst “open innovation” Incubator and Accelerator facility.
Stevenage has 3000+ businesses
Continual Private/Public Investment
Skills and Qualifications
Level 4 (degree or equivalent)
Stevenage 50.1%
Hertfordshire 47%
East 39.2%
Great Britain 43.1%
Level 3 (A Level and equivalent)
Stevenage 65%
Hertfordshire 61.9%
East 57.6%
Great Britain 61.4%
ONS Annual Population Survey Jan 2020 – Dec 2020
Earnings
|
|
Living in |
Working in |
|
Stevenage |
£611.2 |
£676.90 |
|
Hertfordshire |
£684.8 |
£613.30 |
|
East |
£604.8 |
£574.90 |
|
Great Britain |
£587.10 |
£586.70 |
ONS Annual Survey of hours and earnings 2020
Top employment sectors
|
|
Stevenage |
Hertfordshire |
East |
Great Britain |
|
Human Health & Social Work Activities |
19.1% |
9.1% |
12% |
13.1% |
|
Wholesale & Retail Trade, Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles |
14.9% |
16,5% |
16.1% |
15% |
|
Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities |
12.8% |
13.2% |
9.6% |
8.8% |
|
Manufacturing |
12.8% |
5.5% |
7.7% |
8.0% |
|
Education |
7.4% |
8% |
9.3% |
8.7% |
|
Admin & Support Services |
6.4% |
14.8% |
10.3% |
8.9% |
ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2019
Enterprises by Industry
The largest portion of enterprises in Stevenage specialise in the Construction sector making up 18.0% of all enterprises. This is then followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical sector making up 14.3% of enterprises in Stevenage.
|
Count of Enterprises by Broad Industry Group |
Stevenage |
|
Agriculture, forestry & fishing (A) |
5 |
|
Mining, quarrying & utilities (B,D and E) |
15 |
|
Manufacturing ( c ) |
155 |
|
Construction (F) |
580 |
|
Motor Trades ( Part G) |
10 |
|
Wholesale (Part G) |
105 |
|
Retail (Part G) |
215 |
|
Transport & Storage (H) |
130 |
|
Accommodation & food services (I) |
135 |
|
Information & Communication (J) |
305 |
|
Financial & Insurance (K) |
265 |
|
Property (L) |
155 |
|
Professional, Scientific & Technical (M) |
460 |
|
Business administration & defence (O) |
270 |
|
Education (P) |
40 |
|
Health (Q) |
110 |
|
Arts, entertainment, recreation & other services |
165 |
|
Total enterprises |
3,215 |
Gross Domestic Product per head For Stevenage £34,899 2019
GVA
- £2,442 million Gross Value Added to the Stevenage economy 2019
- £1,632 Million Gross Value Added by the services sector 2020
- £688 Million Gross Value Added by the production sector 2020
- £678 Million Gross Value Added by the manufacturing sector 2020
- £628 Million Gross Value Added by the Manufacture of metals, electrical products and machinery 2020
Stevenage’s economic growth has been driven by its world class global industries supporting continuing innovation to support global solutions, as well as its highly entrepreneurial and innovative economy and has specialisms in:
