Cheshire & Warrington: Strengths

Cheshire and Warrington is home to a strong, educated and entrepreneurial labour market with an employment rate, skills attainment and business start-up ratio exceeding both the national and regional averages.

Further skills development is supported by high quality educational institutes including The University of Chester working directly with businesses at Thornton Science Park together with Reaseheath College and the Colleges of Mid, West and South Cheshire. The University of Liverpool; Liverpool John Moores University; The University of Manchester; and Manchester Metropolitan University also provide world class education and research capabilities on the edge of the Science Corridor.

The Cheshire Science Corridor is well connected by road, rail, water and air.  The Enterprise Zone sites benefit from easy access to the major motorway network, in particular the M6 corridor.  Two international airports, Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon, serve almost 30 million passengers and transport near 120,000 tonnes of air freight to 160 countries worldwide every year.  The new deep water contained terminal at Liverpool 2 is just 40 minute drive away, and the Protos site in Ellesmere Port has the potential for direct access to the Manchester Ship Canal.