The City and District of St Albans has a strong local economy, a highly skilled workforce, and is an excellent location for rail and airports. It is seen by many employers as a desirable place to be.
A home to major employers
The main sectors of employment in St Albans District are research and development, office (including headquarters and financial and business service industries) and retail.
There are over 8,000 businesses in the district, most of which are small businesses. 87% of businesses are micro-businesses and employ under 10 staff. There are 20 (0.2%) employers with over 250 staff. Many of the larger businesses are known nationally and globally, especially within the management consultancy, legal and financial sectors. These include Deloitte, Aecom, PwC, Premier Foods, Logica and Aon Hewitt. Two major world renowned centres of excellence in environmental issues are located in the district- Rothamsted Research in Harpenden and the Building Research Establishment (BRE).
Excellent transport links
The City and District of St Albans is situated in central Hertfordshire, 20 miles from central London. Major road routes include the M1, M10, and M25 motorways, the A414 and A1081.
The Thameslink rail service operates between St Albans and Bedford and central London and Brighton. These excellent communications link the District to London and the rest of the Country, including Heathrow, Luton, Stanstead and Gatwick airports. St Albans and Harpenden also have direct rail routes to the Eurostar rail service to Paris and Brussels vis St Pancreas International. The Abbey Line branch line railway service also connects St Albans to Watford.
A highly skilled workforce
Nearly half (46%) of residents aged 16 and over living in the district are educated to degree level or above. This is higher than both the county (32%) and national (27%) levels. This also represents the eleventh highest proportion of adults educated to higher education qualifications in England, the second highest outside of London (behind Cambridge).
The district has the third highest proportion of higher and intermediate managerial/administrative/professional occupations- the first is the city of London and second is Richmond-upon-Thames.
More information about the district's economy will be available in a short factsheet which will be published during summer 2013.
Date of last review: 17 April 2013