Renthusiast2.0

The Sunday Times highlighted Manchester mayor Sir Howard Bernstein’s attempt to “woo” Wall Street firms to the north England city; along with Mike Ingall CEO of Allied London, the company behind Spinningfields – Manchester’s answer to Canary Wharf.
According to the article, Bank of New York is bringing 750 new jobs to the city, which Bernstein and Ingall hope will convince more to do the same. In the next few years a slew of financial regulation is expected to increase the amount of back-office work that banks have to undertake in Europe. There are 42 new directives being foisted on the EU financial-services sector in the next three years.

Banks such as Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch are never going to give up their prestigious Wall Street or City of London addresses. But, Bernstein and Ingall hope, they may be convinced to ship the burdensome back-office work up north rather than out east. Rents in the City are about £55 a square foot and in the West End they are close to £100. Rents in Manchester are about £25 a square foot. Rents and wages in India are far lower, but they are rising and there are other factors at play. “How sustainable is it for people to ship off everything to Bangalore in the long term?” said Bernstein. He pointed to Powergen’s decision to move its call-centre operations back to Britain to improve customer relations. “And if you look at the City of London or Wall Street, it’s obvious that financial and professional-services companies want to be close together,” he said.