Regional excellence will power the UK’s role in Europe’s €2tn luxury opportunity

Earlier this month, ECCIA and Bain & Company’s report confirmed both the scale and potential of Europe’s high-end and luxury sector, currently valued at €986bn and contributing 5% of EU GDP. Britain accounts for a significant portion of that value, a testament to the strength of our high-value manufacturing, retail and hospitality industries.

Beyond being a vital contributor to the European luxury industry, it also marks a bright spot in Britain’s post-Brexit industrial future. The report celebrated centres of excellence across the continent: Île-de-France for fashion, Bavaria for engineering, Tuscany for craft, and Geneva for watchmaking. London remains a global hub for luxury retail and hospitality. But increasingly, it is Britain’s regions that stand alongside Europe’s finest, powering growth in design, production and experience-led luxury.

This extends from Bentley Motors in Crewe to Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover in the Midlands’ “Motorsport Valley”, to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars on the South Coast. These centres match the best in the world for design excellence, engineering capability and export performance.

Burberry’s globally recognised designs, crafted in West Yorkshire, exemplify the international appeal of British creativity. In Northamptonshire, Church’s and Edward Green continue to set the benchmark for shoemaking, while Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramics industry remains central to the UK’s design economy. Collectively, these regions produce goods that carry British industrial excellence and, critically, investment appeal into the global marketplace.

This momentum is tangibly visible in Manchester. Global names including Soho House, Nobu and Audemars Piguet have invested in new spaces. At the city’s heart, the £400mn St. Michael’s development, with 220 branded residences, signals long-term investor confidence in Manchester’s place in the luxury landscape. Further north, Scotland’s distilling, textiles, and hospitality industries continues to evolve, bringing centuries of tradition to both legacy and new luxury frontiers. Together with London, these regional clusters represent a vital economic engine: £81bn in economic value, £25.5bn in tax revenue, and more than 450,000 skilled jobs. This is a modern industrial success story, and one that must be enabled to fully participate in a multi-billion-pound growth and jobs dividend.

We welcomed the recent certainty that the government provided by negotiating the 10% US tariff arrangements for British luxury carmakers. That intervention rightly recognised the strategic value of this sector. But to capitalise on future growth, we need an environment that supports brands, manufacturers and SMEs in our capital and across the country.

Walpole is calling for a high-end growth plan to ensure our regions can compete with the world’s leading centres. That includes:

• Resetting post-Brexit trade relations with Europe to allow easier access for British goods to high-value continental markets.

• Reinstating tax-free shopping for international visitors, so Britain can compete directly with European cities for the global tourism pound. Oxford Economics estimates this would add £4.2bn to GDP, support 78,000 jobs and deliver £350mn in additional tax revenue.

• Working with ECCIA and the EU to establish a robust, Europe-wide industrial strategy that includes luxury manufacturing.

• Ensuring better access to finance for SMEs to scale and export, and increased investment in specialist skills to build future talent pipelines

• Pressing forward with ECCIA’s recommendation for a joined-up tourism, trade and culture strategy that positions the UK as the global home of high-end creativity and craft

According to Bain, the global luxury market could reach €2 trillion by 2030. With the right framework, Britain can capture a greater share, generating hundreds of billions in additional economic impact and expanding beyond the 450,000 jobs it already supports.

Our exceptional brands have already demonstrated the creativity, skill and industrial depth to be a leading participant in Europe’s luxury future. With the right policy and support, British high-value manufacturing and luxury can be one of the defining growth stories of the decade, showing global decision-makers not only what we make, but why we are an outstanding investment proposition.

Picture credit, top: Crafting Richard Brendon ceramics at the Pollyanna Fine Bone China workshop in Stoke-on-Trent, photographed by Sam Walton