Where industry is strong and where it's weak: key facts of UK business geography

The UK’s financial services industry is not nearly as London-centric as the creative industries. Rather than the South East of England being the country’s productivity engine, it is a band stretching west from the capital along the M4 corridor towards Bristol. 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.