Business managers leaving the capital

Small to medium enterprise (SME) managers and directors are increasingly moving out of the capital, it has been shown.

A survey by the networking company KDB published this week indicated that London and the south-east both had a substantial fall in the number of company directors based there.

The same investigation showed that other large English cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool have experienced good growth in this area.

Matthew Booth, the chief analyst at KDB, argued that such information was important to the business community: "The density of company directors in each locality provides us with an effective proxy and map of entrepreneurial and wealth-creating Britain."

It is possible that many SME managers are opting to leave the south in a bid to cut costs during the credit crunch, or perhaps because of the widespread availability of advanced communications technology.

Research by Enterprise Rent-A-Car this week showed that a large number of SMEs were being adversely affected by escalating fuel costs.