Leicester leads the way in PwC city rankings

Leicester is leading the way amongst East Midlands cities for jobs growth – but all cities are catching the historic top-performers in the South of England, according to the latest Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index.

Leicester comes in at 9th places in the highest ranking cities table, and third in the top ten improvers, with Derby in 10th place in that ranking.

John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC, said: “The UK has been a great job-creating machine in recent years and this has driven improvement in our good growth index this year across all major UK cities. On average across the UK, the index is now at its highest level since it began in 2006 and all regions have benefited from this upturn.

“But there has also been a price to pay for this in terms of worsening housing affordability, increased average commuting times and more people having to work long hours. The cities that are highest ranked on the index also tend to suffer the highest price of success.”

Published today (8 November 2017), the sixth annual Good Growth for Cities 2017 index sets out to show that there’s more to life, work and general well-being than GDP. The index measures the performance of 42 of the UK’s largest cities, England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and the new Combined Authorities against a basket of ten indicators based on the views of the public as to what is key to economic success and wellbeing.

These include employment, health, income and skills – the most important factors, as judged by the public – while housing affordability, commuting times, environmental factors and income inequality are also included, as is the number of new business starts.

In particular, Leicester, Derby and Nottingham all perform at or above the UK average on all measures, however Leicester also performs well in the measure for jobs.

Paul Norbury, PwC’s senior partner for the East Midlands, said: “The Good Growth for Cities Index, is great news for the East Midlands region. Leicester, Derby and Nottingham are performing at or above the UK average on all measures. The region’s economy is diverse and resilient, and it is great to see our cities performing so well in jobs, growth and quality of life measures.”

“Delivering good growth cannot be achieved by any one person working alone, but goes hand-in-hand with place based transformation, where local government, central government and the private sector act together and work collaboratively, to facilitate local economic growth, prosperity and wellbeing. There is strong evidence that devolution is creating conditions for what appear to be quick wins, but are in fact long-term growth opportunities.”