Overseas investment in Yorkshire reaches five year low

Leeds has been ranked as the third best performing city in the UK outside of London for attracting foreign direct investment projects, with 21 FDI projects locating in the city in 2018.

According to EY’s 2018 UK Attractiveness Survey Leeds was home to 43 per cent of all projects locating in Yorkshire & Humber in 2018 and it was the only place in the region to make the Top 10. Only Manchester and Birmingham performed better nationally.

Despite Leeds ranking highly, the total number of FDI projects in both Leeds and the wider Yorkshire & Humber region was down on the previous year.

In terms of its share of UK projects, 2018 was Yorkshire’s worst performance of the last five years.

Suzanne Robinson, managing partner for EY in Yorkshire & Humber, said: “There are some great examples of investment decisions made in 2018 now being realised - such as electronics giant Premier Farnell’s 362,000 sq ft distribution centre in Leeds, which was the largest ever pre-let warehouse development in Leeds.

“Premier Farnell will join other big name brands at the Logic Leeds development and the company has said that this new facility, expected to be fully operational in early 2020, will become the “epicentre” of its future business.

“And of course, Leeds’ much-lauded successful bid for Channel 4’s new national headquarters – while admittedly a UK and not overseas investment – further highlights how the spotlight is starting to turn to the major cities outside London.

“In this region the number of FDI projects being soaked up by one city, Leeds, is marked – and the shift of investment to larger cities is a UK-wide trend.”