Two thirds of small business owners in London and the South East are considering leaving central London over the next five years.
The figure rises to 78% for technology start-ups.
Published by Sussex Innovation, the business incubation network wholly owned by the University of Sussex, at the unveiling of its first off-campus incubator hub in Croydon.
The poll, which quizzed the bosses of businesses in London and the South East of England, found that the key factors pushing entrepreneurs out are rising property prices (78.5%), difficulties accessing funding and investment (26.6%), and securing top talent (24.1%).
The majority (64.3%) of those thinking about leaving the capital would consider making a short move to the south east as an alternative.
But perhaps those businesses should consider moving west, to Wales...
Flights of fancy
Cardiff Airport is still work in progress, but it is expected that it will soon land airlines providing the business community with far more routes into hub airports globally.
But we are pretty close to the UK's only hub airport at Heathrow with the UK Government committed to a new rail spur from Reading station to the airport, which potentially could see in the future direct trains from South Wales.
Capital connections
The English capital is in easy reach of South Wales and train journey times will be reduced further with the electrification of the line to Paddington.
Cardiff is the closest of any world capital to London.
So if you are a financial services or professional advisory firm in the City of London there couldn’t be a better time to relocate functions to South Wales, particularly to the dedicated enterprise zone for the sector in the centre of Cardiff.
Cardiff is undergoing big changes:
Talking of Cardiff ...
Cardiff is the best city for young people to ‘work and play’ according to recent research from Legal and General... better than Edinburgh, London and Belfast.
The city scores highest with young people for its low-cost of living, good job opportunities and decent wages.
And it also has one of the highest graduate entrepreneurship levels in the UK, helping to boost the numbers of non-Welsh graduates that stay after finishing their degrees; in a cosmopolitan city with all of the great facilities you would expect from a modern European capital.
Not forgetting Newport
The city is closer to London than Cardiff and has some truly great businesses like International Rectifier, SPTS and Gocompare.
The city has the potential to become a world leading breeding ground for a new wave of software graduates with its National Software Academy.
Plus, Newport is home to Europe’s best hotel and conferencing venue the Celtic Manor Resort ... the perfect location to get that challenging business deal over the line.
Work should start later this year on the Wales International Convention Centre at the resort, which last year hosted the NATO and UK Investment Summits.
When completed in 2018 it be able to accommodate 5,000 conference delegates.
Electrification of the Great Western Mainline from Paddington should reach Wales’ second biggest city by 2018 and it is also home to Wales’ only Premiership football team in Swansea with the breathtaking coastline and countryside of the Gower and west Wales on its doorstep. There are some pretty exciting firms there too such as Veeqo and Cellnovo.
Or Swansea
And the North offers great links
If you are a company in Liverpool or Manchester it is a great location not only in terms of breathtaking scenery and quality of life, but the region also benefits from a first class indigenous workforce exemplified by the thousands employed at the Airbus wing-making facility in Broughton.
And further west ‘energy island’ Anglesey has the potential to become a world leading location for energy, from nuclear to tidal power, as well as in research and development.
Business costs
If you are renting office space in London then paying £90 a square foot is not uncommon. But in Wales you can move into prime grade A office space for around £21 a sq ft, or a little more for the exciting new one million sq ft Central Square scheme immediately outside a key gateway into Wales at Cardiff Central Railway Station.
One of key determining factors for inward investors are office locations close to key transport hubs, such as railway stations. Central Square ticks all the box here.
And in Swansea and Newport rental costs are even more competitive.... and yes plenty of scope for a new wave of close to train station office developments too.
Thriving creative industry
The sector is really hot at the moment with a wave of new indigenous firms. Pinewood has invested in its first film studio outside of the south-east of England at Wentloog in Cardiff.
Wales is also home to flagship production such as Dr Who and Atlantis.
There are great independent television production companies such as Boom Pictures in Cardiff and Tinopolis which has its headquarters in Llanelli.
They are great examples of how Wales can be used as a launchpad to win commissions elsewhere, as well as acquiring businesses globally.
Life sciences
If you in the life sciences sector, whether in early stage drug delivery or diagnostics, then Wales is a happening place.
Whether in terms of equity investments from the £100m Life Sciences Investment Fund, or the support at the new ‘nerve centre' for the sector in Cardiff Bay, the Life Sciences Hub Wales, you will get the red carpet treatment if you move here.
A number of firms in the sector have already announced they are moving to Wales to take advantage of the support offer, including Verona Pharma and ReNeuron.
Lower house prices
You - and your workforce - will get far more for your money in Wales than London and the south east of England. According to recent Land Registry figures the average house price in Wales is £118,762 compared to £175,581 for the UK and an eye-watering £461,453 in London.
Economical education
If you bring your business here from England and a child has two years in the Welsh education system then when it comes to university they (or more likely you or your staff) will only have to pay fees of £3,685 a year, rather than up to £9,000 for English students this could provide a saving of nearly £5,500 a year, or £16,500 over the course of a degree!
Close knit community
With such a close knit business community in Wales you only need to attend a few key business networking events to get to know the real movers and shakers in the Welsh economy.
And if you want to move quickly on a deal there is a first class professional advisory sector with lawyers and accountants that don’t charge fees you would have to pay in London or other cities such as Manchester and Leeds.
Success stories
It was back in 1993 that Admiral started up in Cardiff with a phone [okay maybe a few more] selling car insurance.
Today it is Wales’ only FTSE 100 firm with a turnover of more than £2bn and a workforce of 7,000 and growing.
It also has car insurance and price comparison firms in Italy, Spain, France and the US.