Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan country of Greater Manchester urban county, northwestern England with a rich industrial heritage. Manchester occupies a featureless plain made up of river gravels and the glacially transported debris known as drift. It lies at a height of 133 feet (40 metres) above sea level, enclosed by the slopes of the Pennine range on the east and the upland spur of Rossendale on the north. Much of the plain is underlain by coal measures; mining was once widespread but had ceased by the end of the 20th century.  Manchester’s economy has been moving from an industrial to a postindustrial nature. Services have become the chief employers, with the “thinking” rather than the manual services undergoing expansion. Some services, such as transport and distribution, are declining, but the professions, finance and banking, administration, and general personal services are growing with explosive force.

Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. A medium-sized market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide advances in science, technology and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". It's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. Perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. Birmingham's major cultural institutions – including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Library of Birmingham and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art music, literary, and culinary scenes. The city is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors and offers many wonderful things to its people and guests.