Is London the best place to work in PR?

There are great benefits to living outside of London, for a start house prices are so much cheaper. But are there the same opportunities to develop a successful PR career away from the capital?

Carole Scott, director at PR agency Bottle, which is based in Oxford, is thrilled to have a PR career that offers big-name clients without having to spend her life commuting. Scott started out in the voluntary sector and when she decided to move to agency life, assumed she would have to travel to London from where she lived in Oxford: “I love London but didn’t want to commute and didn’t want to go back to being stuck on the underground every day.”

“Bottle took a punt on me – taking someone from the voluntary sector was a risk. I started as a PR consultant (account executive equivalent) and was promoted within a couple of months. I became a director in the company within two years and have been growing my role ever since.

“The interesting thing is that being out of town doesn’t limit the clients we attract. Poundland and AXA PPP healthcare are among our longest standing clients and we’re currently working with Honda, so there’s no shortage of big names on our roster.”

Scott may feel her career benefits from being out of London, but being in Oxford is not the same as being in the north. Simon Turton, owner of agency Opera PR which is based in Derbyshire, believes there is a north/south divide when it comes to how clients view PR: “In London there are both larger budgets and a greater appreciation of the need for PR. From my experience, too many regional companies still see PR as something they need to do, but don't really understand. Of course, there are many PLCs and larger businesses outside London that are using PR, but I do feel that the SME sector, in particular, is reluctant to dip its toe into the PR water.”

Turton gives an example of a successful property developer who baulked at paying £200 a month for PR and marketing consultancy, and yet to fuel his three vehicles would have cost at least £100 per vehicle: “Unless he could see direct sales resulting from PR activity, he wasn't interested.”

As well as having more potential clients who “get“ PR, London life offers a breadth of PR disciplines according to Tom Leatherbarrow, head of B2B at PR agency Willoughby Public Relations: “In ten years I did public affairs, financial PR, corporate and crisis. I now have an understanding of finance which I just wouldn’t have got if I’d stayed in the regions and which I bring into my everyday work with B2B clients.“ However, Leatherbarrow says that working in London has a price tag attached: “The big disadvantage is the cost of living. The only way to get a house big enough to bring a family up in is to live outside London and commute in, which leaves you at the mercy of Network Rail.”

Dan Street, digital consultant, EMEA at PR agency Waggener Edstrom, has worked in and out of London. He compares the two:

“I’d say it really depends on what type of person you are (and what type of agency you work for) regarding where’s best to work. My employers both inside and outside of London have done their utmost to be accommodating when it comes to flexible working and I think that as a result, the work/life balance is pretty consistent no matter where you work.

“From a personal perspective, as someone who’s originally from the south west and having grown up by the sea, moving to London was a career-motivated decision for me, rather than a lifestyle choice. Despite the opportunity of flexible working, I’m based in Waggener Edstrom’s Covent Garden office full-time and I enjoy being in one of the busiest parts of the city.

“I’d say one significant advantage of working in London is that with most of the larger international agencies based here, there’s greater potential for travel abroad. Working in London also gives you better access to a wealth of industry events and seminars, something that can be useful from both a networking and professional development perspective. However, it’s worth pointing out that these are by no means exclusive to London.”

Written by Daney Parker