THREAD: Today we launch a report alongside @EY_UKI and @MarkGregoryEY looking at the levels of foreign investment going into our towns and cities. You can download the report here: https://www.centrefortowns.org/reports  but here are some findings

Whilst foreign investment is up by five per cent on last year, which we welcome, there are still sharp differences between towns and cities. This chart shows how foreign investment has continued to go to our twelve Core Cities:

Consider how in 1997 our Core Cities accounted for less than a third (31%) of all foreign investment. In 2019, that figure was 70%, as the table below shows:

Remarkably, 83% of all foreign investment into the UK in 2019 went to either one of the Core Cities or to projects within 30km of those Core Cities:

In the digital sector, a sector we have already shown to be overwhelmingly concentrated in London and the South East, London again received the vast majority of all the foreign investment

We are also concerned that our coastal towns are receiving next to no foreign direct investment. In 1997 there were 59 projects in coastal towns funded by foreign investment. In 2019, there were just 10, and last year there were just 6.

Equally, and especially concerning given how COVID-19 affects our universities, foreign investment into our university towns halved in the last two years (before COVID-19)

Read the report here: https://www.centrefortowns.org/reports