The South-East is not the country’s productivity engine, rather a band stretching west from the capital towards Bristol is, according to a new LSE report which challenges prevailing wisdom on the uneven spread of industry across the UK.

 

Other findings include that the UK’s financial services industry is not nearly as London-centric as the creative industries. The East of England stands out nationally in terms of the intensity of local investment in research and development (R&D). And in addition to longstanding concerns about the North-South divide, there are emerging disparities between coastal and inland areas.

 

These are among the key findings in a new ‘atlas’ of industry in Britain published today in a special report by Sandra Bernick, Richard Davies and Anna Valero at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics (LSE).