Coventry the top performer locally in Centre for Cities research

COVENTRY has outperformed its West Midlands rivals over the last decade according to research from the organisation Centre for Cities.

In its annual Cities Outlook report – released today – it says the four West Midlands cities researched – Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford – have all seen some reasonable growth over the last ten years but Coventry stands out as a strong performer.

Last year’s report was the subject of much attention for highlighting the economic disparities between London and the rest of the UK’s cities.
 
The report covers city performance over the past decade on housing, business and innovation, population, earnings, environment, education and skills and digital connectivity.

Turning to the West Midlands, the report says that on the whole, jobs growth and business stock growth have been slightly below the UK average.

“Coventry stands out as the most successful city over the ten years, having achieved an 8% increase in jobs, a 22 % increase in business stock (a third higher than the national average) and a population growth of 11%, considerably outgrowing the rest of the West Midlands,” the report says.

“Although it still has a high proportion of public sector jobs, the most recent figures show Coventry to have the second fastest growth in private sector jobs among UK cities.”

The report says Stoke continues to struggle across a range of indicators, with a decline in jobs between 2004 and 2013, and only a 1% increase in business stock.

Its population has grown by just 3% in that time.