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KEY FACTS
Its all about Milton Keynes.....
A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK
Milton Keynes is the most ambitious and successful new city within the UK.
The fantastic location and environment of the Milton Keynes and North Buckinghamshire area continues to attract business and people at a phenomenal rate. Here are some of the reasons why:
LOCATION
- Milton Keynes is the centre point between London and Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge.
- Milton Keynes shopping building (the centre:mk and Midsummer Place) attracts over 31 million visitors annually.
- Milton Keynes is home to MK Dons, MK Lightning (Ice hockey team), and MK
Lions (Basketball team)
ROAD
- Milton Keynes is adjacent to M1 Motorway, and has access from Junctions 13 and 14.
- A5 dual carriageway runs through centre of city.
- Journey times by road from Milton Keynes:
M25 35 minutes
Central London 70 minutes
Central Birmingham 70 minutes
Oxford 60 minutes
Cambridge 60 minutes
RAIL
- Main West Coast Line runs through Milton Keynes.
- 3 stations in the city: Wolverton / Milton Keynes Central / Bletchley.
- Rail journey times from Milton Keynes:
London Euston - 40 minutes
Birmingham New Street - 70 minutes
Manchester Piccadilly - 2 hours
AIR
- London Luton is nearest international airport. 35 minutes drive from Milton Keynes, excellent choice of flights across Europe.
- Journey times to other international airports:
London Heathrow - 60 minutes (road)
London Gatwick - 1 hour 30 minutes (road)
Birmingham International - 60 minutes (road or rail)
East Midlands - 60 minutes (road)
- Cranfield Airport five miles from city. Small scale private and commercial traffic.
POPULATION OF MILTON KEYNES AND NORTH BUCKS
- Currently 240,000 (representing a rise of 18.4% between 1991 and 2001, compared with a rise of 3.7% in the UK in the same period) and is forecast to rise to 270,000 by the year 2011.
- Relatively young age profile, with 46% aged under 30 compared with 41% nationally.
- 17.5 million people live within 90 minutes drive. (Source: MK Council Population Bulletin 2002/3)
EMPLOYMENT
- The number of jobs in the area (Milton Keynes and North Bucks) population is estimated to be 127,208 (April 2001) compared with 123,258 (November 1999),
an increase of 3950 in the 17 month period. This represents an annual growth rate of 2.3%.
COMMUTING
- Currently about 20,000 people who live in Milton Keynes work elsewhere with 24,000 commuting in from adjacent areas.
- The major employment centre within the City remains Central Milton Keynes (CMK) with 25,000 jobs.
- About 40% of the workforce is in the skilled, managerial or professional categories.
- Milton Keynes has a 1.9% unemployment rate, better than the UK average. (March 2005)
EDUCATION
- Milton Keynes provides Primary and Secondary education with transfer taking place at age of 11.
- All Milton Keynes secondary schools have sixth forms.
- There are a number of specialist schools covering modern foreign languages, science, business, maths, computing, sports and the arts.
- Milton Keynes College provides sixth form, vocational, work based and degree level courses.
- As the City expands, the educational provision expands with new schools opening every year and a range of courses for 14-19 year olds and adults expanding every year.
- There are approximately 22,500 primary school pupils, and 12,200 secondary school pupils in the area.
UNIVERSITIES
Two universities are located within Milton Keynes and North Bucks: The University of Buckingham and The Open University. A third, Cranfield, lies just 7 miles from Milton
Keynes. In addition, Milton Keynes College is a thriving educational centre in the City.
BUSINESS PROFILE
There are currently approximately 7,500 employment establishments. 78.5% are in the service sector, 11.9% in the production sector with 16.1% employed in the production sector.
- 86% of businesses employ 20 or fewer people
Source: Milton Keynes Economic Partnership, Summer 2000
- There are currently over 500 overseas owned companies in Milton Keynes, representing 8% of the total companies in Milton Keynes and 19% of employment. There is a high representation of European, American and Japanese companies.
- Major companies with a substantial presence in Milton Keynes and North Bucks include Alps, Argos, Asda, Aston Martin, Bank of Santander, British Telecom, EDS, Ingram Micro UK Ltd, Marshalls, Konica Minolta, Daimler Chrysler UK Ltd, Suzuki.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
The Milton Keynes Theatre is close to the Shopping Centre in Central Milton Keynes, and was opened to the public in October 1999. The Theatre received £19 million from the National Lottery Arts Fund and has put Milton Keynes on the regional and national theatre map, with opportunities for plays, musicals, pantomime, dance, touring opera and concerts.
The Gallery is the city and the region’s exciting new contemporary art gallery, seeking to place contemporary visual arts at the heart of public and private life.
The Theatre District adjacent to this development contains, restaurants, bars, speciality shops and other retail and commercial premises and is the night time hub of the city.
Midsummer Place, costing over £18 million, was the largest development of its kind to take place in the city for nearly 20 years. It was created to form an extension to the shopping building (thecentre:mk). There are six new flagship stores including Debenhams and 45 shops. A key feature is the pedestrianised, piazza-style boulevard with continental pavement cafes, leisure outlets and entertainment areas. The Boulevard is open 24 hours a day, creating a new focus and meeting point for Milton Keynes.
Xscape centre, the £60 million development on a 10 acre site in Central Milton Keynes by Craig European plc opened in 2000. The city has its own ‘real’ snow indoor ski centre, the first of its kind in Europe. The 410,000 sq. ft. integrated development has a health and fitness centre, 16 screen multiplex cinema, a family entertainment centre (City Limits) with ten-pin bowling, shops and restaurants. Xscape attracted 6m visitors in the first four months from opening and was the winner of the 2001 Best Major Leisure Scheme.
INWARD INVERSTMENT
With a tremendous track record in attracting business to the area in the last 25 years, Milton Keynes welcomes mobile investment from overseas and UK companies. The City also encourages reinvestment and long term expansion from companies already here.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
A report commissioned by Milton Keynes Council and English Partnerships has been completed recently by EDAW, International Planning and Environmental Consultants and which demonstrated the remaining potential and framework for development in Central Milton Keynes (CMK) The opportunities proved by the aggregation of the goals within the framework should prove immensely exciting to Developers, Investors and Entrepreneurs alike.
- The recently announced plans for the extension of the centre:mk will provide a further 100 shops and other facilities.- A £472m, 544,000 sq ft expansion of existing shopping area to provide additional retail, refreshment, car parking, residential and public realm enhancements.This will create the largest shopping experience in the UK.
- A new £50m, 30,000-seater UEFA 4 Star standard multi-purpose stadium is now under construction.
- Two new retail developments were recently completed for IKEA and a
110,000 sq ft Asda Wal-Mart. This is the largest Asda in the UK.
- £250m office and residential development with two hotels, retail, bars and restaurants with World Trade Centre franchise.
- A £120m food retail (110,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s) and residential development in Central Milton Keynes.
- A new 3.4m sq ft mixed industrial and distribution scheme proposed for the East of Milton Keynes.
- New retail warehousing developments include a £24m, 80,000sq ft Homebase and 119,400 sq ft B&Q store.
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