Transport, storage and manufacturing are what this county actually does. North Northamptonshire Council counts around 17,000 transport and storage jobs, about 11 per cent of all employment and over twice the national share, and around 22,000 manufacturing jobs, roughly 14 per cent and almost double the national share. West Northamptonshire Council counts around 5,000 logistics businesses and 57,000 logistics jobs, up 10 per cent in five years. Both councils describe the area as sitting inside the logistics Golden Triangle, and both of them put that phrase in print.

The structural fact that matters most for anyone marketing here is that a great deal of the buying is business to business, and it does not behave like consumer buying. A haulier choosing a commercial solicitor, a distribution site choosing a maintenance contractor, a food manufacturer choosing a recruiter: those searches are longer, more specific and far less numerous than a plumber search, and each one is worth a great deal more. That changes what is worth going after and what is worth leaving alone.

Two more things worth knowing. Silverstone Circuit is here, in the Silverstone ward with an NN12 postcode, but the site genuinely straddles the boundary and a southern part sits in Buckinghamshire, which is why two councils determine planning there in parallel. And the body a lot of pages still call SEMLEP has gone: the South Midlands Authorities, six councils including both unitaries here, launched on 30 July 2024.