Sheffield is located in the centre of the UK and home to world-class business, professional and financial services businesses with a burgeoning creative and fintech sector.

1. BUSINESS,
PROFESSIONAL
AND FINANCIAL
SERVICES
@InvestSheffield

2. BUSINESS,
PROFESSIONAL
ANDFINANCIAL
SERVICES
Sheffield is located in the centre of the UK and is
home to world-class business, professional and
financial services businesses with a burgeoning
creative and fintech sector.
The Sheffield City Region is recognised as a UK
Financial Centre of Excellence by the Department
of InternationalTrade due to the large talent
pool, established financial ecosystem and cost
effective real estate. Sheffield has a long heritage
within the financial and business services sector.
Independently benchmarked as one of the most
cost-effective cities in the UK for property and
staff, Sheffield offers Grade A city centre office
space at an average of £14 per square foot and
salary costs are up to 28% lower than London.
The city’s location at the heart of the UK’s major
road and rail networks makes Sheffield one
of the most accessible regional cities in the
UK. With the development of the High Speed
(HS2) rail link journey times to London will be
significantly reduced.
Sheffield is in the unique position of lying
between five international airports - all within 90
minutes travel time.
Digital Connectivity – Sheffield has an excellent
digital infrastructure and is well served by
the major telecoms carriers including BT,
Virgin Media, C&W and Origin Broadband.
The Superfast SouthYorkshire programme is
also investing in the city’s digital infrastructure
through a £22 million project to increase the
provision of ultrafast broadband. In addition to
this, Easynet, ASK4, Level 3 and SSETelecom
have all invested to develop infrastructure
including points of presence in the city.
Sheffield is the Outdoor City. As England’s
greenest city, Sheffield has more than 200 parks,
woodlands and gardens, and is the only UK
city to have a national park,The Peak District,
within its boundary.The open countryside offers
stunning scenery, walking, climbing, cycling and
general outdoor life in the country.
Creative Sheffield is the economic development
arm of Sheffield City Council. We attract inward
investment by promoting Sheffield as a leading
business location. We provide free and impartial
advice for location consultants and potential
investors. We also offer aftercare support to
recent investors and we account manage
foreign-owned companies in the region.
Sheffield has a number of strengths
within the business, professional and
financial services sector including:
• Banking and Finance;
• Insurance and Pensions;
• Support Centre Operations; and
• Legal and Professional Services.
The Banking and Finance sector is strong in
Sheffield, employing over 18,900 people. HSBC is
one of the largest private sector employers in the
city, employing over 4,000 people in a variety of
functions including a global IT shared service centre.
The city is also home to Santander,The British
Business Bank, GrantThornton, BHP, Lloyds Banking
Group, Nationwide, PwC and Royal Bank of Scotland,
and all benefit from Sheffield’s financial and
customer service skills base.
Insurance and Pensions. Key employers such
as Aviva, Aon Hewitt, Capita and Westfield Health
employ nearly 7,700 people. Sheffield has key
strengths in life and pensions administration.
Support Centre Operations. Sheffield offers a
vibrant commercial environment in which business
and financial services operations can thrive. This
makes our city the location of choice for captive
contact centres, shared service centres, and business
process outsourcing operators. Capita, XLN, Dixons
Knowhow and PlusNet all have sizeable operations
in Sheffield.
Legal and Professional Services employs over
259,000 people in the 60 minute journey to work
labour pool, with 153,150 qualified professionals and
a further 106,000 part qualified professionals. Over
7,000 accountants are registered with professional
bodies and there are 8,600 employees in the legal
sector. National and international law firms have
been created and grown in Sheffield. Irwin Mitchell
is head-quartered in the city, Nabarro grew here, and
DLA Piper started here and is now one of the largest
law firms in the world.
“When we decided that we wanted to expand our services outside of London, we looked at
many different cities across the UK. Sheffield immediately became a strong proposition because
of the large talent pool of highly skilled people that live in and around the city.The Universities
are a huge asset to the city and a magnet to firms like ours looking to relocate.
The other big draw that led us to Sheffield over other cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and
Leeds were the transport links and its central location in the UK”.
Lee Bartlett, Fragomen Worldwide.
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICESCREATIVE SHEFFIELD

3. Locating your business to Sheffield will give you
access to talented people. Within a peak 60 minute
commute there is a catchment of 2.1 million people,
with 64% or 1.4 million of working age. Over 340,000
people hold a degree level qualification or higher.
“No other location offers such a large
recruitment catchment combined with
such competitive salaries in the UK.”
East West Locations.
TALENTED
PEOPLE
60,000OVER
The financial and legal
services sector employs
7% of the working
population.
and contributed to over
14% of Sheffield’s GVA
(The City UK 2012).
12
speak a second language, with over 11,500
students in Sheffield from overseas.
are within a 60 minute travel catchment area
with 313,000 students and 92,000 graduates
each year.
UNIVERSITIES
63,000 students at two universities in
Sheffield with over 20,000 graduating
each year – both universities are renowned
for teaching Business Studies, Modern
Languages, Finance and Law.
20k 40k 60k
Graduates
Students
PEOPLE
AFFORDABLE
HIGH QUALITY
OFFICES
Sheffield City Centre has an excellent range of Grade
A office space and is independently benchmarked as
one of the most cost effective cities in the UK for both
property and staff costs. By locating your business
to Sheffield, you can significantly reduce operating
costs and make your business more sustainable.
ST PAUL’S PLACE
Total Floorspace 220,000 sq ft
Grade A offices, located adjacent to the Peace
Gardens and Millennium Square. Close proximity
to both the main central bus station and rail station.
SHEFFIELD DIGITAL CAMPUS
Total Floorspace 230,000 sq ft
Adjacent to the City’s main railway station, this
striking contemporary landmark is a prominent
feature for those arriving in the City via the primary
road and rail routes.
Total Floorspace 66,000 sq ft
STEEL CITY HOUSE
Steel City House offers the unique combination of
modern Grade A office space, and a prestigious
address in one of Sheffield’s iconic landmark
buildings.
Total Floorspace 104,000 sq ft
SAVILLE HOUSE
Prominent landmark building located between the
city centre and the Lower Don Valley.The building
comprises nine stories of offices and a separate
multi-storey car park.
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICESCREATIVE SHEFFIELD

4. INGOODCOMPANYCASE
STUDIES
SHEFFIELD CITY
BILLION ECONOMY
& 52,000 BUSINESSES
RESIDENTS: 1,978,400
LABOUR SUPPLY: 907,000
15-19-YEAR OLDS IN 2020: 102,000
THOSE WITH NVQ L2 AND ABOVE: 70%
BY 2037 POPULATION PROJECTED TO GROW BY 177,000
£30
Business, professional and financial services - FACTFILE
Employed in Business, Professional and Financial Services
125,400
REGION WE HAVE A
INTHE
WHAT THEY
DO:
EMPLOYMENT
COSTS:
Insurance 5.3%
Other financial services 7.3%
Property related services 8.3%
Accountancy and legal 8.9%
Banking 9.8%
IT and research 12.5%
Other business services 48%
in the Business,
Professional and
Financial Services You
will make an average
cost saving of 12%
on clerical grades
compared to London
SKILLS AND EDUCATION:
16.9% of all first year students at Sheffield’s two
universities are enrolled in Business Studies - 3.8%
above the national average. Engineering and
Technology - 5% above the national average.
Steve Harris
Regional Director
The thriving business environment in Sheffield
is matched by extensive, on the ground banking
expertise from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking,
which provides a full corporate banking presence
in the city. It is dedicated to serving regional
businesses turning over between £1m to £1bn
through locally-based advisers who genuinely
understand the opportunities and challenges facing
the area.
Steve Harris, Regional Director said, “Lloyds
Bank has undergone an extensive programme
of recruitment in the last few years, and we
have always looked locally for new talent. We
employ over 1,500 people in the region across
several divisions, including both apprentices and
graduates at our Mortgage Centre in Sheffield,
with high levels of retention across the board.
The countryside around the Peak District is simply
stunning, and the quality schools throughout the
region feed into world-class universities. We have
found this is frequently an important deciding
factor for employees.”
Steve concluded, “Lloyds Bank is committed
to helping Sheffield businesses access growth
capital, flexible funding solutions and world-class
expertise, delivered on a local scale, to maximise
its potential.This, combined with our pledge to
grow our net lending to businesses by £1 billion
every year for the foreseeable future, provides a
solid platform for the city to play its crucial role in
the wider economic revival.”
Andrew Watkinson,
Customer Services
Director
Aviva is an iconic British brand name with
more than 16 million customers. Following
the acquisition of Friends Life in April 2015,
the celebrated insurance giant confirmed it
would be sited at five core locations in the
UK, one of these being Sheffield. Its selection
as a core location demonstrates the
confidence and commitment the firm has in
the local labour market to supply the future
needs of the business.
The Aviva office in Sheffield provides a variety
of functions for the business, ranging from
administration to services across a number of
different areas including pensions, life insurance
and health insurance.
Andrew Watkinson, Customer Services
Director said: “As a business we have no
difficulty with recruiting in Sheffield and a
high number of graduates from both
universities are interested in joining us each
year, attracted by the potential to build their
careers and progress through the company.
We operate recruitment through both
graduate and traditional career pathways and
feel there is a substantial talent pool available
locally, who are able to deal with the more
complex roles we require.”
He concluded, “Aside from the business side
of things, Sheffield offers a great balance
between work and quality of life for our
employees. As a major city, it retains a
community feel and you are never far away
from any events taking place. Furthermore,
with the Peak District only a short drive
away, you can soon get away from the urban
city centre and relax in open countryside.”
Employees: Over 1,500
Operations in the region:
Retail Banking, Private Banking,
Commercial Banking, National
Mortgage Unit and Support
Functions
Markets: UK & Overseas
Employees: 3,500
Operations in the region:
One of UK Core strategic
locations
Markets: UK wide
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONAL AND FINANCIAL SERVICESCREATIVE SHEFFIELD

5. Invest Sheffield offers a free and extensive package of
services, advice and assistance for those wishing to do
business in Sheffield, some of the specific areas of support
we can offer are:
HOW WE CAN
HELP YOU
Property
Our comprehensive knowledge of Sheffield’s commercial
property market will enable us to help you find the most
suitable office or premises for your business.
Finance
We can help you identify and access appropriate grants, loans,
or equity finance.
Recruitment
A HR consultancy service giving you access to labour and
salary information, advice on employment and skills grants,
interview facilities and recruitment services.
Access to supply chains and networks
Help to identify and introduce you to the appropriate local and
national supply chain partners and networks relevant to your
business needs.
Knowledge and innovation
Access to our regional knowledge base, which includes local
Universities in addition to many private sector research
organisations.
Relocation support
A tailored relocation service to support the requirements of
key personnel relocating to the city.
Accessing Council Services
Access to the relevant local authority statutory services
provided by the council, including planning, environmental
permits etc.
Ongoing support
Once established in Sheffield, we will support the ongoing
growth of your business and work with you proactively to
develop further opportunities to invest within the city.
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the
opportunities Sheffield provides for your business.
Contact us
Mizan Rouf
Investment Manager
T: 0114 223 2353
M: 0787 685 3652
E: mizan.rouf@sheffield.gov.uk
Ken Nettleship
Investment Manager
T: 0114 223 2382
M: 0781 015 2410
E: ken.nettleship@sheffield.gov.uk
Nik Hamilton
InvestmentTeam Manager
T: 0114 223 2406
M: 0755 455 5749
E: nik.hamilton@sheffield.gov.uk
T: @InvestSheffield
E: Invest@sheffield.gov.uk
W: welcometosheffield.co.uk/business