Never mind the brain drain – the brain boomerang is coming
I read this week that Manchester, like the rest of the country, is losing its most talented workers to London’s ‘brain drain.’ So says a report which also claims the problem is particularly acute among 22 to 30 year-olds. Except I don’t see it as a problem at all.
Why not, you ask? Because as someone who was born, bred and educated in the North of England and who primarily learnt their trade in the capital only to return to Manchester in their mid-thirties, I suspect I offer the city a lot more now for my years of experience in the capital. And I am just a poor example. I have numerous friends and acquaintances who, having milked London for all it has to offer and reached high levels in magic circle law firms and such in their twenties, subsequently returned to the North West as thirty-somethings with greater expertise and experience to offer (and I dare say more money to put back into the local economy).
Why did they and I come back? Because while London is undisputedly a great city, there are many reasons why places like Manchester are more appealing to live and work in. With average house prices less than a third of those in London you don’t have to live in a shoebox, for one; the average commute is much shorter and less likely to involve your face in someone’s armpit; the cost of parking is half that of the Big Smoke; and for those looking to start a family, child care costs are around 30 per cent less.
If Manchester and other cities are suffering from the ‘brain drain effect’, I believe the ‘brain boomerang effect’ is beginning, as professionals in their thirties return to the North in their droves.
I’m convinced I’m not the only one to believe this. Big businesses such as BNY Mellon, the BBC and RBS have been relocating significant parts of their businesses to Manchester, attracted by cost benefits, operational efficiencies and superb infrastructure. The city’s transport links are ranked amongst the top ten best in Europe; Manchester Airport serves over 190 destinations worldwide; and the Airport City development will stimulate even greater investment from large multinationals.
More and more businesses are beginning to recognise that the city can offer them the right customers, facilities, infrastructure, support services, and professional services expertise – I have spoken to numerous company executives in recent months who are keen as mustard to be able to use partners who have a base in the area rather than use London agencies as their default setting all the time.
But none of these companies would move here if they didn’t think they could attract the talent. They know that as their investment in the city grows, more and more attractive jobs are created, and more and more of the best and brightest will be attracted to live and work here. A further 50,000 jobs in Manchester are projected in the financial and professional services sector alone by 2020.
A brain boomerang, if you like. Remember where you heard it first.