Could you share some of these reasons? High rent, high salaries I'm sure, but I'd be interested to know what other reasons have.
The UK was built on trade and engineering that mostly started outside London to avoid the Guilds and their stupid rules. I think being outside London gets you closer to these skills and experience and makes you focus more on building a business and less on following international, sexy hype.
I say it a lot but the best place to make money is in unsexy markets, and outside London there are a shed load of unsexy markets desperate for young start ups to dive in.
Don't get me wrong, there are some incredible companies in London doing amazingly well but there is a lot of dross too.