United Kingdom · United Kingdom
London for climate-tech expansion
The deepest pool of climate capital, corporate buyers and advisers in the corridor, and the most expensive place in it to hold a team.
Indicative year one
€293,250
3 people, desks and set-up · €97,750 per person
Cost rank
13 of 14
Lowest first-year cost is rank 1 across the benchmarked corridor cities.
Entity
1 day
Typical incorporation time.
Where London is strong
- More climate-tech investors, funds and corporate innovation teams than anywhere else in Europe
- Utilities, infrastructure owners and regulators all within a day's meetings
- English-first: contracts, hiring and compliance need no translation layer
What to watch
- Salaries and rent are the highest in the corridor — budget roughly double a Lisbon or Barcelona base
- Attention is scarce: standing out needs proof, not just a deck
Sector strengths
- Energy
- Water
- Built environment
- Climate finance
- Mobility
Setting up: A UK limited company can be registered in a day and is usually expected before grant award or public-sector contracting.
The numbers, and where they come from
Indicative benchmarks compiled from public sources for comparison. Confirm figures with a local adviser before committing budget.
Cost to operate
Prime office rent
€1,450
EUR per m² per year
Headline rent for good-quality central space. Fringe and industrial space is cheaper.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Commercial property benchmarks (CBRE / JLL market reports)
Coworking desk
€550/mo
EUR per desk per month
What a small landing team actually pays in month one, before signing a lease.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Requires review
Headline corporation tax
25%
% of profit
Combined national (and local, where it applies) headline rate. Reliefs are not included.
Below average · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National revenue authorities / OECD corporate tax statistics
Employer social charges
15%
% on top of salary
The real cost of a hire is salary plus this. It moves first-year budgets more than rent.
Above average · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National social security authorities / OECD Taxing Wages
People
Senior engineer salary
€78,000
EUR per year, gross
Midpoint for an experienced engineer. Cheap talent and deep talent rarely sit together.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Salary benchmarks (Eurostat earnings, national tech salary surveys)
Technical talent depth
96/100
index, 0–100
Size of the local engineering and climate-technical workforce you can hire from.
Best in comparison · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: Eurostat / national labour statistics on ICT and engineering employment
English working proficiency
100/100
index, 0–100
How easily an English-first team can hire, sell and handle paperwork locally.
Best in comparison · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: EF English Proficiency Index
Living
Home rent, one bedroom
€2,400/mo
EUR per month, central
What relocating a founder or first hire actually costs them each month.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Cost of living
100/100
index, London = 100
Everyday costs excluding rent, indexed against London.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Quality of life
78/100
index, 0–100
Health, safety, environment, transport and commute — what keeps a team once it is hired.
Below average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: OECD Better Life indicators / Mercer quality-of-living ranking
Capital
Climate-tech VC invested
€2,600m
EUR millions per year
How much climate money is actually deployed locally, and so how many investor meetings exist.
Best in comparison · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Grant and public funding access
88/100
index, 0–100
Breadth of grant routes a company based here can apply to, national and EU or UK level.
Above average · reference year 2026 · Verified secondary source
Source: National innovation agencies, Horizon Europe and Innovate UK programme scope
Climate-tech
Testbeds and industrial demand
90/100
index, 0–100
Places to run a real pilot: test rigs, port and grid infrastructure, industrial buyers.
Above average · reference year 2026 · Requires review
Source: GreenLaunch ecosystem directory (named testbeds, catapults, ports and utilities)
Market access
Population within two hours
25m people
millions of people
How many customers a salesperson can reach and return from in a single day.
Above average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Public procurement openness
84/100
index, 0–100
How realistically a foreign SME can win public and utility contracts here.
Above average · reference year 2025 · Verified secondary source
Source: EU Single Market Scoreboard / UK Cabinet Office procurement data
Setup
Time to incorporate
1 day
working days
How fast you can have a local entity able to sign contracts and open a bank account.
Best in comparison · reference year 2026 · Verified primary source
Source: National company registries (Companies House, KVK, Bolagsverket and equivalents)
Visa and relocation route
70/100
index, 0–100
How straightforward it is to move a founder or key hire here and keep them.
Below average · reference year 2026 · Verified secondary source
Source: National immigration authorities (skilled-worker and startup visa routes)
Free soft-landing support in London
- Global Entrepreneur Programme
UK government relocation support for overseas founders moving HQ to the UK.
- London & Partners
Free soft-landing advice, market data and introductions for companies entering London.
Routes that land in London
The order of work for a specific move, with the guides and organisations that matter on each one.
Expanding a German climate-tech company into the UK
How a German climate-tech company approaches a UK entry: which UK cities to consider, what the product and entity gates are, and which UK organisations help for free.
Expanding a Dutch climate-tech company into the UK
A practical route for Dutch climate-tech companies entering the UK: target cities, product conformity, UK entity and grant routes, and the UK organisations that help at no cost.
Expanding a French climate-tech company into the UK
What a French climate-tech company needs to line up for a UK entry: conformity marking, a UK entity where funding requires one, target cities and free soft-landing support.
Expanding an Irish climate-tech company into the UK
How Irish climate-tech companies scale into the UK market: city choice beyond London, the entity and funding position, and the Northern Ireland question.
Expanding a Nordic climate-tech company into the UK
A UK entry route for Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian climate-tech companies: where to land, what the cost step looks like, and which gates come first.
Score London against your own company
GreenLaunch weights every one of these figures against your sector, stage, customers and priorities, compares up to four cities side by side and produces a shortlist report you can share with your board.