Dubbed the ‘Steel City’ for its industrial background and production of steel, Sheffield has become England’s fourth largest city and is highly-regard among professionals and students alike.
There is an increasingly large student presence in the city with both University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam attracting over 60,000 students each year with many coming from abroad.
High numbers of student arrivals have pushed average prices of flats and student accommodation up by 10% each year since 2016.
Like Wakefield, Leeds and many other Northern cities, Sheffield has reaped the benefits of the Northern Powerhouse initiative with the government agreeing to donate £30 million a year to the city over the next 30 years to aid with the development of manufacturing and innovation.
With the population expected to grow to over 630,000 by 2037 from its current 560,000, the investment being driven into the area is designed to accommodate this exponential growth in the city.
Transport links to the city makes Sheffield an easy accessible place from wherever you are in the country.
With four airports located within half an hour’s drive of the city centre, international visitors can access the city with ease making it very much a hub for international relations to develop particularly in the manufacturing sector.
Sheffield’s train station runs frequent services to the rest of the country as well as London St Pancras, taking just 2 hours to get to the capital.
The easy access to the city means private sector jobs have rocketed in the area alongside the city’s change in infrastructure. With over 9 million passengers passing through the station every year, the combined tram and railway station is very much the heart of public transport in the city.
With the growth of various industries attracting masses of professionals to the Steel City coupled with top-rated higher education, student retention in the area is creating a great Northern workhouse with an economic output of £31 billion per year. Like other great Northern cities, Sheffield is hard to ignore for any investor.