Wage Rates

Leicestershire offers substantial cost savings on wage rates over a range of occupational categories and grades compared to London and the South East. Labour costs are also highly competitive with other locations across the country. Average salaries across Leicestershire (£18,705) are below the national average (£20,839). A move to local wage profiles for relocating to the Leicester and Leicestershire area would induce very considerable cost savings in respect of major operational overheads.

Table 1. Average Earnings	Managers &Senior Officials	Professional Occupations	Associate Prof & Technical	Admin & Secretarial	All Occupations
City of Leicester	£27,756	£28,641	£20,671	£14,158	£17,601
County of Leicestershire	£33,911	£30,342	£21,636	£13,843	£19,446
London	£50,494	£37,963	£32,864	£19,272	£28,404
England	£38,121	£31,129	£25,021	£14,907	£20,839

Source: New Earnings Survey,2003 (Workplace Based)

Average wage costs in the City of Leicester are 40% lower than London (£28,404 in London compared to £17,601 in Leicester – a £11,000 saving). Across the main occupational grades, wages in Leicester City are between 55% and 75% of the London equivalents, providing substantial cost savings to organisations which relocate (Table 1). There area potential cost saving of over £5,000 per job (27% reduction) for equivalent Admin /Secretarial jobs in Leicester compared to London (Chart 1).

There are also cost savings to be made in terms of direct civil service employment. There are local savings of around £2,800 per post on current AO and AA civil service salaries compared to London – local AO grades from £13,550 to £16,550 (£15,850 to £19,350 in Inner London) and local AA grades from £11,770 to £13,850 (£14,100 to £16,600 in Inner London).