By Richard Johnstone | 18 November 2013
Economic growth and quality of life in a host of regional cities is outstripping London as the capital ‘pays the price’ due to its problems with transport congestion, housing affordability and income inequality, a report has found.
An examination of ‘good growth’ in cities by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Demos found Reading & Bracknell, Aberdeen and Edinburgh were the top three economic regions in the country, when measured alongside quality of life.
Today’s Good growth for cities report measures the performance of 39 cities and travel-to-work areas on a host of indexes, including gross domestic product and residents' of their jobs, health, income and skills. It then calculated an average weighted score for each area, which was set against an average score of zero. The most successful places had a plus score, with the weakest scoring negatively.
Using these calculations, 18 UK cities were deemed to be above average on quality of life measures, with 21 below.
Reading & Bracknell was the best city region in the country, with a positive score of 0.63. It is followed by Aberdeen, Edinburgh, with Southampton and Cambridge completing the top five.
According to the calculations, larger cities such as London (36th), Birmingham (32), Manchester (23) and Leeds (21) had a lower quality-of-life rating than smaller cities.
John Hawksworth, PwC’s chief UK economist, said the report showed that there was ‘a rising price for economic success for many of the largest UK cities’.
He added: ‘Increased congestion, pollution, income inequality and high house prices contribute to rankings in the index below that expected based on traditional gross value added measures.
‘Medium-sized cities with better quality of life tend to score better on our index based on what the public says is important to them.’
Paul Cleal, head of government and public sector at PwC, added that the report highlighted the need for a flexible work-life balance in cities to create what he called ‘good growth’.
He said: ‘Public sector organisations at all levels, particularly in our cities, have an important role to play in creating a platform for growth through a focus on the key levers of skills, infrastructure and innovation.’
