Internal & Computer Audit - where to live and work

London as an area has many different definitions. Here it is used to describe the area bounded by the M25. London is well represented by every industry sector, however, the major feature is the City. Within the City of London or within close proximity, there are approximately 200 internal audit departments attached to banking or other financial institutions. They provide a vast number of opportunities for internal auditors. Most areas of London are within reasonable commuting distance of the City.

Outside of financial services, London is the internal audit base for a great number of the UK’s major Plcs together with a number of international groups and central government departments. The largest concentration of these are either in Central London or to the west in a broad area spreading out to the M25 and bounded by the A40 in the north and the A3 in the south.  There are a number of internal audit departments based in North London but comparably few in East and South London.

The only significant internal audit departments in Kent are located in the Medway towns and Tunbridge Wells and consist primarily of financial services groups.  Optimum places to live are   Maidstone or Sevenoaks. Both provide rail access to London, road access to the M20 and M25 and are within reasonable commuting distance of the Medway towns and Tunbridge Wells.

In Sussex, the South Coast in recent years has lost many of the financial services groups that were previously based there. Those that remain are based in and around Brighton. To the north of Brighton, along the A23, around Crawley and Gatwick, there are a number of internal audit departments covering leisure, manufacturing, financial services, transport and utilities. The optimum place to live is around Crawley. It provides rail access to London and Croydon and road access north and south along the A/M23 together with road access to most locations in Surrey.

Surrey offers a good range of internal audit departments across most industry sectors with financial services again the predominant employer. Croydon is the principal internal audit site although internal audit departments are reasonably evenly spread with many of the major towns being host to at least one department.  Lines of communication run north to south with the exception of the M25 which bisects Surrey east to west. Optimum places to live are Croydon, which has particularly good rail links to London, or anywhere along the M25 corridor near one of the many London commuter towns.  

It makes sense to take Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire together. They consist of the  South East to the north and north west of  the M25. The area has a number of internal audit departments across all industry sectors. The main towns where audit departments are based are Bedford, Hemel Hempstead, Luton and Milton Keynes. It is quite practical to commute by road between any of these towns which essentially cling to the M1 corridor. Lines of communication run north to south, except for the M25. Most of the larger towns in the area have good commuter rail serves into London.  It is probably best to live close to the M25 and Watford is possibly the ideal location. It has road access to all the major centres within the area, good rail links to London and it is quite possible to commute by road to much of North and West London.

Essex is a prime commuter area for the City with most of the towns providing good rail services into Fenchurch and Liverpool Street. There is not a large number of internal audit departments based in Essex. Basildon, Romford and Chelmsford are the major towns with internal audit departments and further to the north east, Colchester. There are very few internal audit departments based in North  Essex. The optimum place to live is within the Basildon, Chelmsford and Romford triangle.

There is a range of internal audit departments based in Berkshire and it is well represented by international and particularly technology groups. Berkshire is essentially at the centre of the Thames Valley. The major towns, Bracknell, Newbury, Reading and Slough are all host to departments that are mainly concentrated towards Heathrow in the east of the county. The major line of communication is the M4, bisecting Berkshire north to south. The optimum place to live is anywhere in the east of the county. This area has road access to West London, the M3, M4 and M40 corridors and Heathrow, together with commuter rail links into London.    

Internal audit departments in Hampshire are mostly based in three locations; Basingstoke, Portsmouth and Southampton.  Financial services predominates together with a number of  international groups. Lines of communication run along the M3, north to south, or along the coast. The optimum places to live are around either Basingstoke or Southampton. Basingstoke is a commuter town for London, has road access to a large number of internal audit departments in Berkshire and West Surrey and is within commuting distance of Southampton. Southampton is within commuting distance of Basingstoke, Portsmouth and the Bournemouth/Poole area where a number of financial services groups have based their internal audit departments.

In Oxfordshire, the only site with any significant internal audit presence is Oxford. The optimum place to live is Oxford from which there is the potential to commute by rail into London. It also has good road links to the south and east. This offers access to the many internal audit departments based in Berkshire or via the M40 into West London.

Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and South Wiltshire can be taken together. There is only one area of private sector internal audit activity which is along the coast between Weymouth and Bournemouth. Within this area there are a number of financial services groups and a  limited number of other departments. It is only within commuting distance of this area, or North Somerset, with access to Avon, that internal auditors can find any realistic choice of private sector employers.

Within Avon, Gloucestershire and  North Wiltshire, there is a triangle bounded by Cheltenham in the north and Bristol and Swindon in the south. Virtually all the internal audit departments in this area are based in one of these towns or cities. Bristol is the most diverse with a wide range of industry sectors, followed by Swindon and then Cheltenham and Gloucester which are primarily financial services based. There is good road access between towns in this area and there is probably no optimum place to live. Bristol has the most opportunities, although Swindon is within commuting distance of much of Berkshire and for some within rail commuting distance of London.

Finally South Wales, there is really only Cardiff, which is limited in the number of internal audit departments.  However, from Cardiff, or any area to the east, there is good road access to either Cheltenham and Gloucester or Bristol.  

Taken together these four counties represent a large geographic area. Unfortunately for such a large area, there are very few internal audit departments. The principal towns and cities with internal audit departments are Norwich, Peterborough and Ipswich. Peterborough offers potentially the most opportunities and is within rail commuting distance of London. Cambridge also offers the opportunity to commute into London and by road is within commuting distance of a number of internal audit departments based in Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire. Realistically, if you are going to live in many parts of East Anglia, to change your employer, you are going to have to relocate.

This area is dominated by Birmingham which is in some respects a microcosm of London and the M25. The road network converges on the City centre and the only practical means of commuting around the City is to use the increasingly congested motorway network. Birmingham does not have as many internal audit departments as might be expected from the UK’s second largest city. Given the difficulty of commuting around the City the optimum places to live are to the north west of the City around Dudley, allowing access to the industrialised Black Country or towards the east of the City and commutable to Coventry, Derby and Leicester.  Whilst manufacturing industries predominate, there is a diverse range of internal audit departments in the West Midlands.

The few internal audit departments in Herefordshire and Worcestershire are based in Redditch and Worcester. The optimum place to live is along the M5 corridor that bisects the county east to west. To the south offers the opportunity to commute by road into the Cheltenham, Bristol, Swindon triangle or to the north along the M5 into Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Shropshire and Staffordshire again provide little employment for internal auditors. The only town in Shropshire with any significant internal audit presence is Telford, which with its road access into the West Midlands is the optimum place to live. In Staffordshire there are internal audit departments based in and around Stoke and in Burton. Optimum places to live are along the M6 corridor, allowing the opportunity to commute down into Birmingham and the West Midlands or alternatively up into Cheshire and South Manchester.

If this area is taken as a whole, the majority of the internal audit departments in the area are based along the  M1 corridor. There are a significant number of internal audit departments, representing a whole range of industry sectors, based in Northampton, Coventry, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Chesterfield.  To the north, the optimum place to live is in a triangle defined by Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. From here it is possible to commute by road to a significant number of internal audit departments. Derby has the advantage of proving access to locations north of Birmingham such as Sutton Coldfield. Further south, the optimum location is Coventry, convenient to Leicester, Northampton and locations to the east of Birmingham such as Solihull. There are few internal audit departments sited away from these major towns and cities that are linked north to south by the M1. As you move east in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire and into East Anglia, with the exception of Peterborough, there are very few internal audit departments. Equally, west of the M1 in Derbyshire is the Peak District.

Internal audit departments based in Warwickshire are limited to Stratford and Leamington Spa. Optimum places to live are around Warwick and Leamington Spa which provide road access to Coventry and much of the West Midlands.

The North West is home to a wide range of internal audit departments representing all sectors of the economy. Outside of the South East, it has the highest concentration of internal audit departments. Manchester and to a lesser extent Liverpool are the two main locations, however Chester and many of the towns in North Cheshire and within Merseyside and Greater Manchester are sites for a number of internal audit departments. The M6 corridor bisects Merseyside and Manchester and allows commuting between Cheshire and Lancashire. The A580, M56 and M62 run east to west and allow commuting between Merseyside and Manchester. The optimum location is probably North Cheshire particularly around Warrington. North West Manchester is potentially attractive offering access via the M62 into West Yorkshire, in particular the Bradford/Leeds area. 

There are a few internal audit departments based in Lancaster and outside of Lytham St Annes but nothing north of Preston. The best places to live are around Preston with the opportunity to commute south, or Burnley with the opportunity to commute into Manchester or West Yorkshire.

There are essentially no internal audit departments based in either North Wales or Cumbria. In North Wales, Flintshire and towns such as Wrexham are within commuting distance of Chester and Liverpool.

Whilst this represents a large geographic area the number of internal audit departments when compared to either the North West or Midlands is comparatively small and they are concentrated primarily in financial services.

Outside of York there are few internal audit departments based in North Yorkshire. Optimally places to live are either York or anywhere within commuting distance of Leeds.

South Yorkshire contains a number of industrial companies and the principal City with internal audit departments is Sheffield. Whilst proximity to the M1 is useful, South Yorkshire is sufficiently small to commute around.  A location that provides an easy commute into both Sheffield and West Yorkshire is optimal. There are a number of choices. From areas around Sheffield and Barnsley it is also possible to commute across the Pennies into Manchester which multiplies the number of opportunities available.

West Yorkshire contains the majority of internal audit departments in Yorkshire. Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax are the home to a number of financial services groups together with a more limited spread of other industry sectors such as utilities and retailing.  Optimally proximity to the M1 and or M62 for access into Manchester, possibly around Huddersfield, is ideal. However, the road network and the relatively small geographic areas of both West and South Yorkshire provide a much wider choice of optimal locations than in other areas of the UK.

There are few internal audit departments located in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The optimal place to live is in the east of the county close to the M62 for access to West Yorkshire and the M18 for South Yorkshire.

The North East is limited in internal audit terms and consists of departments based in either Newcastle or Sunderland. There are no significant internal audit departments in either Durham or Northumberland and only a very limited presence in Middlesborough, which is technically part of North Yorkshire. The difficulty with the area is that does not contain sufficient internal audit departments to offer any realistic choice. It is also too far from either Mid Lothian or West Yorkshire to allow daily commuting. In terms of the internal audit departments based in the area, Newcastle is the optimum location.