East Midlands · England
Nottingham & Derby
Aero engines, rail manufacture and nuclear engineering. The East Midlands still builds hard things.
Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation
The place
Derby is one of the few places in Europe where aero engines, trains and nuclear reactor systems are all engineered in the same city. Nottingham adds two large universities, life sciences and a strong digital economy, and the two sit close enough to function as one labour market.
The Peak District is on the doorstep, Sherwood Forest is real, and housing costs are among the lowest of any major English innovation region.
- Precision engineering at very high standards
- Two cities operating as one labour market
- Peak District within half an hour of Derby
- Low housing costs relative to earnings
- Industrial pride without industrial nostalgia
Why Nottingham & Derby?
Aero engines, rail manufacture and nuclear engineering, the East Midlands still builds hard things.
- Aerospace propulsion engineering with global programmes based in Derby.
- Rail vehicle design and manufacture with a long production inheritance.
- Civil and defence nuclear engineering capability in the region.
- Life sciences and digital health research through Nottingham's universities.
- Low housing costs and the Peak District within half an hour.
The region's investment cluster is small, and the two cities' transport links to each other are better than their links to the rest of the country.
What's happening here
Britain is building, and a lot of it is here.
Each item below is a real programme, institution or development with a named source. UKIZ does not publish claims it cannot point at.
Derby engineers aero engines, rail vehicles and nuclear systems in one city
The concentration of high-precision engineering employment is unusual in Europe.
DSIT: UK innovation clusters map ↗
What this place is good at
Strengths, from the canonical record.
- Aerospace propulsion and small modular reactors
- Rail engineering and transport technology
- Sustainable chemistry and materials
- Logistics and freight innovation
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Clean Energy
- Mobility & Transport Technology
- Advanced Materials
- Digital Technologies
- AgriTech & FoodTech
Government publishes East Midlands Investment Zone and Freeport designations.