Does London deserve to be the ‘creative capital’?

It’s a well-known conundrum: do you set up your creative business in the capital with the buzz, the excitement and the expense, or do you choose to invest in somewhere you’d like – and can afford – to live?

It’s not always as clear-cut as that – after all, you need clients to make a business work, but these days where are all your clients? Ours are spread far and wide, with just one based in London.

In Bath we pay just 11 per cent of what London consultancies pay on rent. That’s a lot of money that we’ve invested in the business instead of paying in rent. What every start-up needs is cash, so how can any group survive in central London, when such a large chunk of its income is spent on office space?

Our design studio is in a mews building in the centre of Bath. Business is blooming and we’re attracting local clients who don’t want to use London consultancies – it’s ironic really.

We also own an office, which boosts the value of the business, but that rarely applies in the Big Smoke…

Rachael Tapping, Design partner, Matter, by e-mail