Preston is the highest ranking city in the North West, when it comes to the public’s assessment of 12 economic measures.
The annual Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index rates 51 of the UK’s largest cities, plus the London boroughs as a whole. Preston makes 15th place and only scores lower than the UK average on three out of the twelve indicators – health, safety and high streets.
The measures include jobs, health, income, safety and skills, work-life balance, housing, travel-to-work times, income equality, high street shops, environment and business startups.
Warrington & Wigan ranks at 28th in the index, followed by Liverpool (34th) and Manchester (46th).
Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Warrington & Wigan have all out performed their previous performance on skills, compared to data from 2019-21.
Rankings out-perform the UK average
Across the North West, the rankings out-performed the UK average for work-life balance, and are either above or in line with the UK average for house price to earnings, transport and income distribution.
Looking at economic growth, the North West is in line with the UK average, and is expected to grow by 1.1% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025, making it the fifth fastest growing region out of 12 in the UK next year.
Adam Waller, market senior partner for PwC Manchester, said: “I’m really pleased to see the North West performing so well in relation to skills, as this will be key to creating opportunities and prosperity.
“The region is working hard to ensure that our people have knowledge and experience that’s fit for the future, and with programmes to support this, such as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Skills Bootcamps, and the work the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has been doing on their economic strategy, cities across the North West are well placed to continue this work.
“It’s also great to see some positive predictions in terms of economic growth. Sectors such as transportation, professional services and STEM industries are all expected to see high growth, and with a large number of companies in these areas calling the North West home, I hope that we’ll continue to see progress over the next few years.”
The highest priority for those living in the region is income. While this is consistent with the national picture, individuals in the region see this as an even greater priority than the rest of the UK on average. Jobs, health and new businesses are also top priorities.
Across the UK
Plymouth is the highest performing city in the index, with Bristol rising to second place and Southampton remaining in third place. These cities scored particularly highly across income distribution, work-life balance, jobs and skills.
Cities across the South West region lead the latest index but this region’s cities score less well on new businesses and house price-to-earnings relative to the rest of the UK.
Raising prosperity and opportunity
PwC’s research shows that the public are most focused on issues impacting their financial wellbeing, with measures such as income, jobs, and housing seeing the biggest increase in importance to the public.
This shift in priorities has impacted cities’ performances, with the historically strong performing cities of Oxford and Milton Keynes seeing the most significant declines in scores, performing less well on income distribution, housing and high streets & shops.
Image credit: Dave0
