Best areas to open cafe in West Midlands
30 West Midlands local authorities ranked by the Gera Business Location Score — real rent, wages, rates and market density.
Where is the best place to open a cafe or coffee shop in West Midlands?
In West Midlands, the best area to open a cafe or coffee shop is Staffordshire Moorlands, with a Gera Business Location Score of 66.1/100: premises at £63/m²/yr and local median pay £26,204. Stratford-on-Avon ranks lowest of 30 West Midlands authorities at 49.5/100. From 2025 UK government open data; re-dated annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top West Midlands area for cafe: Staffordshire Moorlands.
How this is calculatedWest Midlands ranked for cafe
| # | Local authority | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local pay | Rates / 100 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Staffordshire Moorlands | 66.1/100 | £63 | £26,204 | £2,722 |
| 2 | Malvern Hills | 63.6/100 | £79 | £27,744 | £3,413 |
| 3 | Wyre Forest | 62.8/100 | £88 | £27,346 | £3,802 |
| 4 | Cannock Chase | 62.3/100 | £78 | £29,719 | £3,370 |
| 5 | Newcastle-under-Lyme | 62.1/100 | £95 | £27,238 | £4,104 |
| 6 | Herefordshire, County of | 62/100 | £97 | £28,366 | £4,190 |
| 7 | Stoke-on-Trent | 61.9/100 | £73 | £30,767 | £3,154 |
| 8 | Shropshire | 61.4/100 | £104 | £28,397 | £4,493 |
| 9 | Sandwell | 61.1/100 | £95 | £28,766 | £4,104 |
| 10 | Bromsgrove | 61.1/100 | £107 | £27,494 | £4,622 |
| 11 | Walsall | 60.7/100 | £99 | £28,691 | £4,277 |
| 12 | South Staffordshire | 60.6/100 | £105 | £28,259 | £4,536 |
| 13 | Stafford | 60.6/100 | £108 | £28,523 | £4,666 |
| 14 | Lichfield | 60.5/100 | £107 | £28,845 | £4,622 |
| 15 | Dudley | 60.4/100 | £100 | £29,071 | £4,320 |
| 16 | East Staffordshire | 60.3/100 | £95 | £31,048 | £4,104 |
| 17 | Tamworth | 59.7/100 | £113 | £28,143 | £4,882 |
| 18 | Wolverhampton | 59.4/100 | £95 | £32,053 | £4,104 |
| 19 | Worcester | 59.1/100 | £115 | £30,003 | £4,968 |
| 20 | Wychavon | 58.9/100 | £107 | £32,022 | £4,622 |
| 21 | Nuneaton and Bedworth | 58.5/100 | £109 | £31,319 | £4,709 |
| 22 | North Warwickshire | 57.8/100 | £104 | £34,564 | £4,493 |
| 23 | Coventry | 55.5/100 | £121 | £35,124 | £5,227 |
| 24 | Warwick | 55.4/100 | £142 | £33,616 | £6,134 |
| 25 | Telford and Wrekin | 54.6/100 | £161 | £30,601 | £6,955 |
| 26 | Rugby | 54.5/100 | £130 | £36,417 | £5,616 |
| 27 | Birmingham | 54/100 | £153 | £33,374 | £6,610 |
| 28 | Redditch | 52/100 | £188 | £30,780 | £8,122 |
| 29 | Solihull | 51.6/100 | £165 | £35,794 | £7,128 |
| 30 | Stratford-on-Avon | 49.5/100 | £158 | £42,929 | £6,826 |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest area for cafe premises in West Midlands?
- The lowest VOA rateable value for this property type in West Midlands is £63/m²/yr in Staffordshire Moorlands. On the combined Gera Business Location Score, which also weighs wages and demand, Staffordshire Moorlands ranks #1.
- How much are business rates for cafe in Staffordshire Moorlands?
- For a 100 m² unit in Staffordshire Moorlands, business rates are roughly £2,722/yr at the 2026-27 small-business multiplier (43.2p), on top of about £6,300/yr rent — before Small Business Rate Relief.
Opening a cafe or coffee shop in West Midlands?
Set up your UK GDPR and EU AI Act compliance from day one with a fixed-scope GeraCompliance sprint.
Contains public sector information published by Valuation Office Agency and Office for National Statistics and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: VOA Business Floorspace + ONS Business Counts + ONS ASHE (work geography) + ONS population estimates (2025 (VOA 31 March 2025; ASHE 2025 provisional; Business Counts 2025; population mid-2024), published December 2025).