Newport, Wales’s third largest city and one of the UK’s ‘youngest’, is often just somewhere passed through on the train between Cardiff and London or seen from a car window on the M4. But with a thriving business scene, infrastructure improvements and new office buildings coming to the market, it is becoming a major destination in itself for companies.

Newport has an illustrious engineering history and, although like many other locations it went through a turbulent time as the UK’s industrial industries declined, the presence of the Inmos microprocessor facility in the city, founded in the 1980s and historically attracting top tech talent, has ensured that a legacy of innovation and entrepreneurialism has endured to this day.

Newport has therefore proved a resilient business destination, with a skilled workforce and the advantage over Cardiff of being located slightly closer to the border with England, giving it easier access to Bristol and the South West.

Developments in the last few years have added to the city’s attractions. With the electrification of the South Wales train line finally complete, journey times between Newport and London Paddington have been shaved by 15 minutes, taking the fastest train journey down to just over an hour and a half. This has brought the city onto more companies’ radars as a potential office location than ever before. 

As an example of this, two office refurbishment schemes in the city by Cardiff-based developer Garrison Barclay Estates have already witnessed good levels of interest from companies in Newport, Cardiff, and also Bristol. The Hub, a newly refurbished office building next to Newport train station extending to 54,000 sq ft, already has part pre-let with strong interest in other floors.

Meanwhile, the South Wales Argus, one of the region’s main newspapers, has returned to the city centre after a 50-year absence by taking 12,500 sq ft of office space in Chartist Tower in Upper Dock Street, which itself is at the heart of a new mixed-use development, comprising a hotel and new retail space. Only 17,500 sq ft of office space plus 9,500 sq ft of retail spaces remains available here.

Other occupiers with a large presence in Newport include Admiral Plc, Wales and West Utilities GoCompare and the Office for National Statistics.

There are therefore many reasons to be cheerful about Newport’s future. With an increasing number of companies looking closely at the UK regions as both high residential and commercial property costs in the South East make it cheaper and easier to attract talent elsewhere, we expect to see more occupiers arriving than ever before in the next few years.

Further information

Read more: The return of UK companies northshoring their offices