Manchester has been rated as the preferred destination for computing specialists relocating from London, according to a survey conducted by a specialist tech recruitment platform.
A survey of 1,000 tech workers in London by Censuswide for CWJobs revealed that three-quarters would like to relocate in the next three years, with Manchester emerging as the preferred destination of choice.
Based on this small poll, Manchester – not Birmingham – would appear to be Britain’s second city for tech workers. Just over a quarter picked the North West city, with 11% of respondents opting for its West Midland’s rival.
The reasons most gave for wanting to leave the capital were the cost of living (52%), buying property (32%) and reducing the time spent commuting (30%).
The same survey asked over 500 senior decision makers in the sector their view on the best place outside of London to establish a start-up – Manchester emerged as favourite again, with more than one in four recommending the city.
“The current situation has shown that with the advancements in technology, location is no longer the barrier it once was in limiting where people can work from” – Dominic Harvey, CWJobs
Although remote working is firmly on the agenda following the COVID-19 shutdown, the survey suggests that the majority of tech workers would have sought out flexibility and distance working in their next job.
Half of respondents said they would take a pay cut to be allowed to work from home and two-thirds said they would accept a job based two hours from where they live if they could work remotely. Eight in 10 of the senior decision makers polled agreed remote working was good for businesses to adopt.
Skills in cloud computing (57%) and cybersecurity (33%) emerged as the most in-demand from employers in the survey.
Dominic Harvey, director of CWJobs said: “These results suggest there is a growing call from tech workers for a better work-life balance and they’re prepared to up sticks and move to achieve it. The current situation has shown that with the advancements in technology, location is no longer the barrier it once was in limiting where people can work from.”
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