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Bristol Harbourside
Image credit: Jim Cossey

The West of England is one of the most desirable places to live in the UK, it's no wonder why more than 150 people a week relocate from London to the West of England (Office of National Statistics). Home to 1.1 million residents, our region contributes £40 billion to the UK economy.

Why choose Bristol & Bath?

We have a world-leading talent pool, with over 46,000 businesses and 28,000 under graduates and post graduates per year.

From established to emerging sectors, our business ecosystem can help your business thrive. We are the most innovative UK city outside of London (Paymentsense), and our range of sectors include aerospace and advanced engineering to Fintech, creative and digital.

With over 91 languages spoken, we have a global-first approach and a reputation for innovation. Businesses can maximise their potential, grow and develop by investing in Bristol & Bath.

Image credit: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

An innovative region

The Plan for Innovation sets out how over the next five years, the West of England can capitalise on our place-based advantages, sector strengths and enabling technologies to create innovation-led solutions for our region’s pressing challenges and priorities.

Download the plan for innovation

We are an ambitious international region

1.1 m Population
46000 Businesses
91 Languages spoken
Map locating where Bristol and Bath are in the UK
Our location

Where we are in the UK

Located in the West of England, Bristol and Bath are ideally located and well-connected, with 85% 0f the UK within a 4 1/2 hours of Bristol and Bath.

The region covers four local authorities: Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Find out more

Discover our region's strengths

Graduates Talent & skills
Colleagues at work Image credit: NCC Centres of Excellence
Engineer at work Image credit: NCC Leading sectors
Graphic illustration of the new Temple Quarter Image credit: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Key developments
Video credit: Meet Bristol and Bath / Woven Films
Why Bristol & Bath?

Discover Bristol and Bath

Encompassing cities, coast and countryside, the Bristol and Bath region offers a wealth of inspiring and practical event venues, perfect for corporate, association or incentive business.

Lifestyle brochure showing Bristol Harbour
Why Bristol & Bath

Guide to Bristol & Bath

Get your lifestyle guide for professionals and their families relocating to the West of England, and see for yourself why we are one of the most desirable places to live in the UK.

Get your copy

Timeline of innovation in the region

1784

First balloon flight in Bristol

1910

Aircraft production began at Filton in 1910 with Sir George White’s British & Colonial (later, Bristol) Aeroplane Company

1934

BBC opens Bristol office

1936

The multi-role Bristol Blenheim was a tremendous leap forward in aircraft technology and became the backbone of the Royal Air Force early in the Second World War. The factory at Filton was the largest in Europe, and several shadow factories were set up around the country to support it

1958

Bristol Aeroplane Company engine division merges with Armstrong-Siddeley to form Bristol-Siddeley, and subsequently merged with Rolls-Royce in 1966, retaining the Rolls-Royce name. The factory at Patchway is still operational today, focussing on military engines, like the EJ200 for the Eurofigher Typhoon, and marine engines

1963

British Aircraft Corporation founded. Plans for a supersonic airliner were well underway. Development began at Filton and Toulouse on the jointly designed and built BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde

1968

Work began at Bristol on the design and manufacture of the structure for the UK's Black Arrow technology satellite X3, which was launched as Prospero in 1971. It was and still is the only all UK satellite and launch vehicle combination

1969

Concorde made its first flight in 1969, and ten years later the last Concorde flew out. In nearly 70 years, over 22,000 aircraft were designed and built by Bristol in the UK or licenced for production abroad

1970s

The technical expertise of Bristol in aerospace led to Intel and Fairchild being set up in the region in the 1970s

1978

Inmos founded. Invented the transputer chip in the 1980s in Bristol

1979

First Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

1984

Inmos sold to Thorn EMI for £192 million

1985

Hewlett Packard chose the city for its European labs, the first outside the US

1994

Inmos absorbed into ST Microelectronics the transputer core powers a third of all the digital TV set-top boxes around the world. ST remained in Bristol at the site built for Inmos on the Aztec West until 2015

1997

Airbus UK founded in Filton

1998

Amazon acquires Bristol HQ IMDb, Bristol remains head office

2000

Picochip fabless semiconductor company founded in Bath

2001

SETsquared Bath opens at Innovation Centre

2002

Icera founded in Bristol | SETsquared Bristol opens

2005

Spinout from HP called Elixent was bought by Panasonic to be another European chip design centre

2009

OVO Energy founded

2010

Bottle Yard Studios opens

2011

Bristol & Bath Science Park opens | Nvidia Corporation acquire Icera for US$367 million

2012

Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), the largest robotics laboratory of its type in the UK opened | Mindspeed acquires Picochip for $52 million

2013

Ultrahaptics founded in Bristol | Intel acquires Mindspeed's small-cell assets including the Picochip technology | The Guild opens | Cray acquires Bristol start-up Gnodal and opens European Headquarters in Bristol | National Composite Centre opens | Engine Shed opens

2014

Just Eat choose Bristol as their new tech development hub

2015

Rolls-Royce announce Bristol the location for the firm’s centre of advanced fan system composite technology development | SETsquared awarded Global Number 1 University Business Incubator, awarded by UBI Global

2016

Graphcore founded in Bristol - founders include team from Icera | Strava open European HQ in Bristol | Graphcore Series A $32m

2017

Graphcore Series B $30m | UltraSoc opens in Bristol. The CEO is former Picochip, selected Bristol due to high talent levels | Ultrahaptics raises $23m | Unit DX opens | Oracle opens second global Cloud Accelerator in Bristol | Graphcore Series C $50m | Dyson open IoT hub in Bristol

2018

Graphcore Series D $200m. Becomes Bristol's first Unicorn valued at $1.7bn | SETsquared awarded Global Number 1 University Business Incubator for the second time by UBI Global | Ultrahaptics Series C $45m | University of Bristol spin-out company Ziylo acquired by global healthcare company Novo Nordisk in a deal which could be worth around $800 million | Tech Nation name Bristol & Bath the UK's Most Productive Tech Cluster

2019

Netflix announce multi-year deal with James Honeyborne creating Wildspace Productions in Bristol | SETsquared awarded Global Number 1 University Business Incubator for third consecutive time by UBI Global | Ultrahaptics acquires Leap Motion for $30m and becomes UltraLeap. Team is now more than 150 with locations in Silicon Valley, US and Bristol | OVO Energy becomes Bristol's second Unicorn following investment from Mitsubishi Corporation | HPE acquires Cray

2020

Graphcore Series D2 $150m. Company valued at $1.95bn | Siemens acquires UltraSoc | BT announce new multi-million pound Bristol hub for more than 2,000 staff, opening 2022 | Unit DX relaunches as Deep tech ecosystem Science Creates with new Unit DY incubator and £15m early stage investment fund | Graphcore Series E $222m. Company valued at $2.77bn. HQ Bristol and offices in London, Cambridge, Paolo Alto, Oslo, Hsinchu, Seoul, New York, Seattle, Austin, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Munich and Tokyo

2021

Codasip opens new UK Design Centre in Bristol | SETsquared Bath celebrates 20th Birthday | UltraLeap Series D $49m | Pismo open European HQ in Bristol | Tech Nation name Bristol & Bath the 3rd largest hub for tech investment in the UK with businesses raising $414m | Vertical Aerospace lists on the New York Stock Exchange | Science Creates Old Market opens

2022

Tumelo has raised $19m in a Series A round | Pax8 becomes a Unicorn | GoWest 2022 Report Published showing significant growth in our Creative Sector | Cardiff's largest post production house Gorilla expands into Bristol | New Writers Scheme launched by Channel 4 and UNESCO City of Film office