Cheshire has quietly become one of the best places in the UK to build a professional services business, and accountancy in particular. It sits within reach of Manchester and Liverpool, has a serious concentration of wealth and owner-managed businesses, and offers the kind of talent pipeline that London firms increasingly struggle to match. Several firms have already made the county their base and are growing on the back of it.
Here are the reasons the county keeps drawing accountancy firms in.
1. A client base that actually needs specialist advice
Cheshire has one of the highest concentrations of high-net-worth individuals outside London, alongside a dense population of family businesses, farms, medical practices and manufacturers. That mix is gold for an accountancy firm. Generalist high-street work is a race to the bottom, but Cheshire clients tend to need genuine specialism.
Ramsay Brown, the specialist medical accountancy firm advising GPs across the UK, works closely has found a niche in medical accountancy, while Paul Austen Associates and Mitchell Charlesworth have both built substantial Cheshire operations serving businesses across the North West.
2. Proximity to two major city economies without the overheads
Office space in Chester, Knutsford or Wilmslow costs a fraction of central Manchester, let alone London, yet clients and staff can be in either city within the hour. That matters when you are building a firm from scratch. Lower fixed costs mean partners can invest in people and technology rather than rent.
Chester remains one of the North West’s most established office locations, combining a historic city centre with a range of modern business space. The market is characterised by a mix of serviced offices, refurbished period buildings and larger developments close to the railway station and business parks. Outside of accountancy, demand is typically driven by other professional services, legal, financial and technology firms seeking high-quality accommodation outside the region’s largest cities. Good rail connections to Liverpool, Manchester and London, together with an attractive working environment and a skilled local workforce, continue to support occupier interest while keeping the office market active and competitive.
3. A genuine talent pool
The University of Chester, Manchester Metropolitan and the University of Manchester all produce accountancy and finance graduates in serious numbers, and Cheshire has become a natural home for senior professionals leaving the Big Four in Manchester who want a shorter commute and a different pace of work. For a founding partner, that means you can actually hire, which is not something every region can claim right now. The North West has a well-established pipeline of ACA trainees, supported by a concentration of accountancy firms and ICAEW-authorised training employers across Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and the wider region.
4. A specialism-friendly market
Cheshire’s economy rewards firms that pick a lane. The county has a large and growing primary care sector, and specialist medical accountancy is a good example of how a niche practice can thrive here. Katie Collin at Ramsay Brown has been vocal about the financial pressures GPs are facing, from the McCloud remedy and NHS pensions chaos to the funding distortions baked into the Carr-Hill formula and the uncertainty around the neighbourhood health framework.
GP partners in Cheshire, as elsewhere, are dealing with contracts in arrears and a workload that leaves no time to work out the numbers themselves. That creates real, sustained demand for specialists who know the sector cold. The same logic applies in agriculture, life sciences and property, all of which are well represented across the county.
5. A supportive business infrastructure
Organisations like the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, the West Cheshire and North Wales Chamber of Commerce, and networks such as the Cheshire Professionals group help give new firms a route into the local business community that would take years to build from scratch. Chester’s Storyhouse and the Alderley Park innovation campus have become genuine meeting points for founders and advisers. For a new accountancy firm, that ecosystem shortens the runway to a first hundred clients considerably.
6. Quality of life that helps you keep staff
This one is not to be dismissed. Retention is the quiet crisis in accountancy, and Cheshire offers something Manchester and London struggle to match, good schools, green space, market towns and a manageable commute. Firms that have moved staff out from the cities report far lower turnover, and in a profession where losing a qualified senior costs six figures once you count recruitment and lost billing, that is a real commercial advantage.
None of this makes Cheshire a soft option. Competition among established firms is stiff, and clients here expect the same standard of advice they would get in London. But for anyone weighing up where to plant a flag, the combination of demand, talent, cost base and community is hard to beat.
