London 'best city for business'

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London has been named the best European city in which to locate a business for the 16th year in succession, according to an annual survey.

The UK capital has also increased its lead over second place Paris, and third place Frankfurt, the latest European Cities Monitor shows.

London came top in five of the 12 categories questioned in the survey, including the quality of staff.

Joint bottom of the 30 cities surveyed were Oslo, Athens and Moscow.

The study by commercial property agents Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker spoke to 500 global companies.

Market access

London has now topped the annual survey each year since it first started in 1990.

Best Cities for Business 1. London 2. Paris 3. Frankfurt 4. Brussels 5. Barcelona 6. Amsterdam 7. Madrid 8. Berlin 9. Munich 10. Zurich Source: C&W H&B

This year it also scored highest in the categories of access to markets, customers or clients; external transport links; quality of telecommunications; and number of languages spoken.

London came out with a final overall score of 0.87, which was determined by calculating its number of first, second or third places in each of the 12 categories, compared to the scores of the other 29 cities surveyed.

Paris scored 0.60, Frankfurt 0.33, Brussels 0.30, and Barcelona 0.28.

The other categories questioned in the survey were: cost of staff, the business climate as created by governments, value for money of office space, availability of premises, ease of travel around the city, quality of life for employees, and freedom from pollution.

'Ultimate place'

Michael Charlton, chief executive of Think London, the UK government's foreign direct investment agency for London, said the UK capital was "the ultimate place to do business".

"It offers international companies the best possible opportunity for business success and the survey results back this up year after year," he said.

London now benefits from a total £38bn ($67bn) in foreign direct investment (FDI), the survey calculated.

Warsaw remains the city which will see the largest influx in companies over the next five years, with a further 41 firms expecting to open offices in the Polish capital.

This compares to 32 planned for Moscow, 20 for London, 22 in Paris and 3 in Oslo.