Coventry top performing West Midlands city – report

CITIES in the Midlands are holding up well in an annual index of UK cities’ performance and with strong scores in terms of health, transport and environmental measures.

But while Coventry finished ninth out of the 39 cities judged, Birmingham was down in 33rd place.

These are the results of the 2014 ‘Good Growth for Cities’ index, which is produced by accountancy and advisory firm PwC and think tank Demos.

It measures the performance of 39 UK cities on a wider range of measures than GDP alone. It captures the characteristics of cities which the UK public consider important for judging medium to long-term economic success.  

Coventry was the highest ranking West Midlands city (9) and the only city in the region to have an average or above average score on each of the index’s performance measures.

Stoke-on-Trent also scored at or above average on all measures, except for skills and income respectively. It placed 18th.

Birmingham’s ranking was below the UK average (33), largely due to being scored below average on the heavily weighted measures of jobs, income, and skills.

This is consistent with the report’s finding that some of the largest UK’s cities perform less well overall on the index, e.g. London was ranked at 34.

Mark Smith, regional chairman at PwC in the Midlands, said: “To improve their good growth index scores, cities in the Midlands have to address congestion, pollution, transport and housing, especially with public funds in short supply.

“Councils and local enterprise partnerships need to consider these issues as they develop their growth plans and highlight areas for investment supported by a robust evidence base.

“The challenge is to identify how best to unlock the potential of our cities – the engines of sustainable growth – by investing in the assets and enablers that businesses require to succeed and grow over the long-term, including skills, infrastructure and innovation.”