Birmingham has been named the top city in Western Europe to invest your money in a respected report.

In the World’s Most Competitive Cities Report 2015 – which ranks urban areas across the world by industry experts – placed the city higher than the likes of Dublin, Barcelona, London and Berlin.

Birmingham was ranked in eight key sectors judged important to the global economy, including automotive, financial services and logistics. By comparison, Manchester and Liverpool were each listed for one sector.

The report, compiled by specialist locations magazine Site Selection, comes after it was announced as the UK’s most investable city in the survey by Urban Land Institute (ULI) and adviser PwC.

Neil Rami, chief executive of inward investment agency Marketing Birmingham, said: “As competition between locations to attract investment continues to intensify, this report cements Birmingham’s standing as a highly attractive international business destination across many high-growth sectors.

“Birmingham can be very proud of these rankings, but its challenge is to keep the momentum going. By investing record amounts on its transport links and building an unprecedented amount of modern office space, the city has emerged as a very popular location in which businesses can thrive.”

Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham
Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham

Birmingham is increasingly seen as a trustworthy place for major investment with regeneration around HS2 and the growth of the vital automotive supply chain on the back of Jaguar Land Rover’s expansion.

Marketing Birmingham has sought to target growth in key areas, including advanced manufacturing, digital and food.

The wider Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP area secured 73 foreign direct investment projects last year, creating some 4,800 new jobs – making it the most successful LEP in the UK for inward investment.

That included the expansion of Chicago-based hydraulic manufacturing firm HydraForce into a new 120,000 sq ft factory in Birmingham’s Advanced Manufacturing Hub.