Reading is officially the best city to live and work in the UK, according to new research.
Oxford, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Aberdeen also scored highly, making the top five, but its bad news for Londoners, with the capital ranking in the bottom 10.
The 2015 Good Growth for Cities Index, from business consultants PwC and think-tank Demos, has ranked UK cities against 10 categories measuring economic performance and quality of life.
Criteria included employment, health, income and skills, in addition to housing affordability, commuting times and environmental factors.
The five highest performing cities have remained unchanged from last year’s report, while some cities improved significantly, most notably Newcastle and Durham, Bradford and Cardiff, where large employment gains and improvements to transport and health care have seen the cities move up the ranks.
Despite claiming top spot on the PwC’s Cities of Opportunity report, the capital, with its high-wage jobs and strong financial sector, ranks low on the list.
The report cites factors such as London’s lack of affordable housing, transport congestion and long working hours as downsides, which offset the capital’s benefits.
The Northern Powerhouse, a proposal to boost economic growth in the North of England by the Conservative and coalition governments, played a predominant role in the report, which hopes to create a score for the region to be used to assess the success of moves to devolve powers.
The overall score of the Northern Powerhouse came just short of the UK average, where higher than average scores for work-life balance, housing affordability and income distribution where outweighed by a lower performance for income and health.
The study also bolstered the argument for decentralisation with cities in devolved administrations such as Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Wales scoring above the UK average.
“Economic success is not just about growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or Gross Value Added (GVA), but also needs to reflect broader measures of wellbeing including jobs, income, health, skills, work-life balance, affordable housing, transport and the environment,” said the report.
19 Highest ranked cities for growth:
1. Reading & Bracknell
2. Oxford
3. Edinburgh
4. Cambridge
5. Aberdeen
6. Southampton
7. Bristol
8. Belfast
9. Leicester
10. Coventry
11. Portsmouth
12. Preston
13. Norwich
14. Swindon
15. Milton Keynes & Aylesbury
16. Plymouth
17. Cardiff
18. Brighton
19. Stoke-on-Trent
19 worst ranked cities for growth:
1. Wakefield & Castleford
2. Middlesbrough & Stockton
3. London (Boroughs Only)
4. Sunderland
5. Liverpool
6. Bradford
7. Birmingham
8. London
9. Swansea Bay
10. Maidstone & North Kent
11. Hull
12. Southend & Brentwood
13. Newcastle & Durham
14. Sheffield & Rotherham
15. Manchester
16. Glasgow
17. Wirral & Ellesmere Port
18. Warrington & Wigan
19. Nottingham
