Richmond’s economy is diversified with the largest employment sectors being administration, business, professional and technical services, retail and wholesale, hospitality, and education. There is also a high proportion of jobs in arts, leisure and entertainment, the creative and ICT industries (more than double the national average). Businesses are primarily concentrated in the main centres of Richmond, Twickenham and Teddington. The borough is a popular visitor destination offering a wide range of attractions including Kew Gardens, Hampton Court, Richmond and Bushy Parks, the riverside, the Wildfowl and Wetland Centre, and the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham. In addition to these, there is a range of events throughout the year which attract additional visitors such as the RHS Hampton Court flower show and rugby matches as well as business tourism.
Wandsworth has a rich industrial history, but nowadays manufacturing only accounts for a small proportion of local jobs (less than 2%). The borough benefits from a diverse economy. The largest employment sector by far is health and social care (21% of employee jobs). Other leading industries encompass retail and wholesale, hospitality, administration and business support services, professional and technical services, and education.
Wandsworth is home to Clapham Junction railway station, the country’s busiest station and to a broad mix of commercial activity including shops, restaurants and pubs as well as leisure and cultural centres such as Battersea Arts Centre and a wide range of community facilities, schools, universities and hospitals that all play a significant role in providing local employment. The borough’s main communities are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth Town. Wandsworth’s high street is dominated by the regenerated Southside shopping centre, cinema and restaurant complex. Other key retail destinations include Battersea Power Station, Putney Exchange Shopping Centre and New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms. Largest employers include the local authority, the University of Roehampton, South Thames College, Wandsworth Prison, St George’s Hospital in Tooting and Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Apple, Penguin Random House, The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and the US Embassy.
Kingston is set in a prime riverside location with easy access to central London, the Surrey countryside and London’s two major airports. Retail, healthcare and education account for almost half of jobs in the borough. Another major employment sector is professional, scientific and technical services. Around 30% of businesses registered in Kingston offer knowledge-based services (professional, scientific or technical services or ICT). Kingston University - with over 20,000 students from 140 countries - is the largest education provider in South London and a key local employer. The borough is also home to Chessington World of Adventures attraction, Kingston hospital, BAE Systems and the headquarters of Lidl and Unilever. Kingston town centre is the primary retail location. Other local town centres include Surbiton, Tolworth, New Malden and Chessington.
Hillingdon is the second largest borough in London but is also the second least densely populated, due to a combination of rural land in the north, RAF Northolt Aerodrome, and Heathrow Airport. The main towns in the borough are Hayes, Ruislip, Northwood, West Drayton and Uxbridge. Hillingdon has a diverse economy driven by transport and logistic sector, business services and retail sector.
Heathrow Airport is the UK’s largest airport and the busiest airport in Europe. It employs 7,500 staff, although around 75,000 people in total are employed at the airport by partner companies including airlines, retailers, food and drink operators, car rental companies, baggage handling and cargo operators, and construction and maintenance contractors. The airport reportedly supports 114,000 local jobs in the supply chain and related service companies including hotels, which represents around one fifth of local employment.
Hillingdon is also home to Brunel University, Uxbridge College, a host of large companies such as British Airways, Coca Cola and Canon and thousands of small and medium sized businesses and an ever- increasing logistics sector. Cadbury Schweppes (part of Mondelez International), Regeneration Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb have their UK head office in Uxbridge, while Canon, Gilead Sciences, Hasbro, Kuehne+Nagel and Marks & Spencer are located in Stockley Park, Hayes. The Home Office has two immigration removal centres near Heathrow which are run by Mitie. Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust are the main healthcare employers in the borough.
Ealing benefits from a diverse economy driven by retail and wholesale, health and social care, administration and business services, manufacturing and education. Employment is strongly concentrated in Ealing, Acton, Greenford and Southall. Key local employers include Ealing hospital, Central Middlesex hospital, Ealing Council, the University of West London, Brompton Bicycle and Delifrance.
Ealing has a rich heritage in film and media production with the world’s oldest film studio, Ealing Studios based in central Ealing. This heritage has helped Ealing attract some of the most technically advanced film production companies, with Garden Studios alone providing 200,000 sq. ft of space in Park Royal. Ealing is home to Park Royal is a Creative Enterprise Zone and the UK’s largest industrial estate. It supports over 1,250 creative sector jobs and at least 150 film, TV, music and visual arts businesses alongside their local supply chains. Ealing town has the highest concentration of knowledge intensive employment in the borough, with nearly 4,500 jobs in financial and professional services. It is also a popular destination for UK and overseas students studying at the University of West London.
Acton has a thriving retail high street, a strong independent and creative business base along Churchfield Road, and several industrial sites particularly clustered in the south. Greenford’s industrial land is a major employment area housing a range of innovative high-tech businesses, logistic, manufacturing and food businesses including Brompton Bicycle Factory and Ferrero, while 70% of available commercial floorspace in Southall is industrial and many food manufacturers are based here including Delifrance and Kerry Foods. Southall is one of the borough’s key areas for investment and growth, with at least 9,000 new homes and 3,000 new jobs planned by 2041.
Hounslow is strategically located along the A4/M4 corridor and near Heathrow Airport. It is home to the headquarters of many global companies - including JCDecaux, Pernod Ricard, Cisco, CBS, Eurosport, Sky and Sega Europe - as well as a range of high-tech startups and IT SMEs like Brompton Technology. The borough has the second highest concentration of ICT and digital businesses in London. ICT accounts for almost 15% of employment (more than three times the national average). The borough also hosts a range of broadcasting film and TV companies. Half of London’s 36,000 screen programming professionals reportedly work in Hounslow, where one in five of all London’s broadcast sector jobs are located.
In addition, Heathrow Airport is a key driver of Hounslow’s economy and many companies in the borough are part of its supply chain. DHL Air Freight operations are based in Hounslow while Air France-KLM’s UK head office is located in Bedfont. Transport, logistics and warehousing is the largest employment sector in the borough, accounting for over a fifth of employment (22.6%). Other key sectors for jobs include retail and wholesale and administration and business services. Hounslow town centre is the largest in the borough offering a range of retail, leisure and hospitality venues. Other major towns in the borough include Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth and Feltham.
Brent is known for landmarks such as Wembley Stadium, the Swaminarayan Temple and the Kiln Theatre. It also contains the OVO Arena in Wembley, the Welsh Harp reservoir and the Park Royal commercial estate. Largest employers in the borough include Central Middlesex Hospital, Brent Council, Flannery Plant Hire, Vitabiotics, Bailey Facilities Services operating at Wembley Stadium, SNG (Sovereign Network Group), the College of North West London, and Maria Mallaband Care Group.
Employment is concentrated in the southwest of the borough in the areas of Alperton, Wembley and Stonebridge. Largest industry sectors in the borough include retail and wholesale, health and social care, accommodation and food services, administration and business services. Retail, hospitality and leisure jobs are strongly clustered in Wembley Park and the Olympic Way. Industrial activity is highly concentrated in Park Royal.
Wembley Park is a major retail, hospitality and leisure hub with a wide range of shops and over 50 outlets serving food and drinks. Wembley Park is home to the Wembley Stadium, the OVO Arena Wembley and Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre as well as Boxpark Wembley - featuring a large selection of independent street food traders, the London Designer Outlet with over 70 retail shops, restaurants, coffee shops and a Cineworld, and the Wembley Park Market that hosts independent traders selling vintage fashions, craft and artisan food. Wembley Park is
Park Royal, which spans the boroughs of Ealing and Brent, is London’s primary established industrial area and is the largest area of Strategic Industrial Land in the city. It supports around 1,700 businesses that employ 43,100 employees across a range of sectors including food manufacturing, logistics, film and TV props, car repair and vehicle maintenance. Regeneration of the area could reportedly create up to 10,000 jobs.
Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) is located halfway between Heathrow and the city and the West End, and benefits from great transport links. The borough has three professional football teams (Chelsea, Fulham and QPR), a thriving media and arts scene, The Olympia conference centre, the UK’s largest shopping mall - Westfield London - and open-air markets such as at Shepherds Bush and North End Road.
H&F is also home to a thriving business community with a concentration of start-up businesses as well as many global companies such as Disney, GE, L'Oreal, Novartis and Virgin Media. Its economy is driven by business, professional and scientific services that account for a quarter of employment (25%). Retail is the second largest employment sector. The borough also has a high concentration of employment in ICT - 14.6% which is more than three times the national average - and in arts, leisure and entertainment. There are two significant industry clusters in Hammersmith & Fulham.
H&F has a large creative industries cluster that is made of around 4,000 businesses including seven theatres such as the renowned Bush Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and the Eventim Apollo; educational art establishments including the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and the Royal College of Art’s White City campus, and the some of the highest concentrations of television and media companies in the UK with the BBC, Channel 4, Disney, ITV and Publicis Media’s agencies based in White City.
The borough also nurtures a science and technology cluster that includes Blenheim Chalcot, the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, the pharmaceutical company Novartis, NATO’s defence innovation centre, Autolus, Invox Pharma, Synthace and over 60 life sciences start-ups and spin-out companies. This STEM cluster is anchored by Imperial College London which has developed space at White City for companies to work alongside their world-leading academics in molecular sciences, biomedical engineering, med-tech, public health and other science and engineering specialties. There are many other innovation hubs and incubation centres in H&F with laboratory space that support companies to scale up their technology and research & development activities.
Earls Court development, which includes Fulham Town Centre as well as the Earls Court and West Kensington Opportunity Area is expected to create up to 12,000 jobs on a 40-acre site across the boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea.
Harrow consists of three towns - Harrow, Pinner and Stanmore - and also includes western parts of Edgware. There were 72,000 employee jobs in Harrow in 2023, which is one of the lowest number of all London boroughs. Harrow has a high proportion of entrepreneurs and micro-businesses that employ four people or fewer. The main employment sectors in Harrow are health and social care, retail and wholesale, and professional, technical and scientific services. Central Harrow forms a commercial hub with many retail outlets, commercial offices, and increasingly residential apartments due to recent regeneration schemes. The town has two shopping centres, St Anns and St George's.
Harrow is served by Northwick Park Hospital and specialists St Mark's Hospital as well as the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, and private hospitals including the Clementine Churchill Hospital and Cygnet Hospital. The borough is also home to numerous educational establishments including Harrow School, Harrow College, Stanmore College and the University of Westminster’s Harrow campus that serves as the university's base for Media, Arts and Design.
Last update: 9 November 2024