Oxford has been recognised as the top performing city in the UK to live and work for the fourth year in a row in a nationwide study carried out by PwC. The city has emerged ahead of Reading thanks to work-life balance, income, transport and skills with Bradford being crowned as the most improved city. Published today (12 November 2019), the annual Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities 2019 sets out to show there’s more to economic well-being than just measuring GDP. The index measures the performance of 42 of the UK’s largest cities, England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and ten Combined Authorities, against a basket of ten factors which the public think are most important when it comes to economic well being. These include jobs, health, income and skills, as well as work-life balance, house-affordability, travel-to-work times, income equality, environment and business start-ups.
For the fourth year running, Oxford and Reading have been named the top-performing cities on PwC’s Good Growth for Cities 2019 index, followed by Southampton in third place. Although Reading has maintained its position in this year’s index, it has seen a decline in its overall index score, driven by lower house price to earnings ratios, income inequality and a fall in new businesses created.
Bradford emerged as this year’s top improver, driven by jobs, work-life balance and skills amongst its 25+ year olds. Bradford has experienced a large reduction in its unemployment rate, measured at 4.1 percent in 2018 compared to 10 percent in 2015. The city also demonstrated moderate improvements in work-life balance, health, environment and skills amongst the adult population.
The index is based on 11 indicators around life, work, wellbeing and economic performance and is measured annually across 42 UK cities.
Indicators include job creation, health, income, skills, housing affordability, housing ownership, transport, work-life balance, the environment, income inequality and the number of new business start-ups.
