Best areas to open office-based business 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 an office-based business in West Midlands?
In West Midlands, the best area to open an office-based business is Staffordshire Moorlands, with a Gera Business Location Score of 65.5/100: premises at £57/m²/yr and local median pay £26,204. Solihull ranks lowest of 30 West Midlands authorities at 52.2/100. From 2025 UK government open data; re-dated annually.
Gera Business Location Score
Top West Midlands area for office-based business: Staffordshire Moorlands.
How this is calculatedWest Midlands ranked for office-based business
| # | Local authority | GBLS | Rent (£/m²/yr) | Local pay | Rates / 100 m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Staffordshire Moorlands | 65.5/100 | £57 | £26,204 | £2,462 |
| 2 | Wyre Forest | 63.6/100 | £74 | £27,346 | £3,197 |
| 3 | Walsall | 63.2/100 | £68 | £28,691 | £2,938 |
| 4 | Malvern Hills | 63.1/100 | £82 | £27,744 | £3,542 |
| 5 | Herefordshire, County of | 63/100 | £77 | £28,366 | £3,326 |
| 6 | Newcastle-under-Lyme | 62.8/100 | £84 | £27,238 | £3,629 |
| 7 | Dudley | 62.7/100 | £73 | £29,071 | £3,154 |
| 8 | Shropshire | 62.6/100 | £81 | £28,397 | £3,499 |
| 9 | Lichfield | 62.3/100 | £82 | £28,845 | £3,542 |
| 10 | Stafford | 61.9/100 | £88 | £28,523 | £3,802 |
| 11 | Sandwell | 61.8/100 | £85 | £28,766 | £3,672 |
| 12 | East Staffordshire | 61.6/100 | £76 | £31,048 | £3,283 |
| 13 | Stoke-on-Trent | 61.2/100 | £80 | £30,767 | £3,456 |
| 14 | Bromsgrove | 61/100 | £109 | £27,494 | £4,709 |
| 15 | Cannock Chase | 60.9/100 | £92 | £29,719 | £3,974 |
| 16 | Telford and Wrekin | 60.8/100 | £87 | £30,601 | £3,758 |
| 17 | South Staffordshire | 60.8/100 | £104 | £28,259 | £4,493 |
| 18 | Tamworth | 60.8/100 | £103 | £28,143 | £4,450 |
| 19 | Nuneaton and Bedworth | 60.4/100 | £87 | £31,319 | £3,758 |
| 20 | Worcester | 60.2/100 | £100 | £30,003 | £4,320 |
| 21 | Redditch | 60.1/100 | £95 | £30,780 | £4,104 |
| 22 | Wolverhampton | 59.4/100 | £94 | £32,053 | £4,061 |
| 23 | Wychavon | 58.8/100 | £107 | £32,022 | £4,622 |
| 24 | Rugby | 58.1/100 | £85 | £36,417 | £3,672 |
| 25 | North Warwickshire | 57.1/100 | £110 | £34,564 | £4,752 |
| 26 | Warwick | 56.9/100 | £124 | £33,616 | £5,357 |
| 27 | Coventry | 56.1/100 | £116 | £35,124 | £5,011 |
| 28 | Birmingham | 53.9/100 | £158 | £33,374 | £6,826 |
| 29 | Stratford-on-Avon | 52.9/100 | £115 | £42,929 | £4,968 |
| 30 | Solihull | 52.2/100 | £166 | £35,794 | £7,171 |
Frequently asked questions
- What is the cheapest area for office-based business premises in West Midlands?
- The lowest VOA rateable value for this property type in West Midlands is £57/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 office-based business in Staffordshire Moorlands?
- For a 100 m² unit in Staffordshire Moorlands, business rates are roughly £2,462/yr at the 2026-27 small-business multiplier (43.2p), on top of about £5,700/yr rent — before Small Business Rate Relief.
Opening an office-based business 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).