Good Growth for Cities Survey Puts Plymouth on Top

The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities index has ranked Plymouth as the UK’s top city based on a series of factors. When looking at a weighted average of measurements including income, income distribution, work-life balance, safety, jobs, health, housing, environment, transport, high street, skills, and new business, Plymouth, Bristol, and Southampton came out on top. These three cities were followed by Swindon, Reading, Exeter, York, Norwich, Edinburgh, and Oxford, which all came out in the top ten.

The report cited how “the ongoing squeeze on living standards” had led factors like income, jobs, and housing to rise in relative importance. Here, the report maintained that “Plymouth does well on income distribution, work-life balance, and jobs to secure first place” while “Bristol similarly performs well on jobs and work-life balance, also scoring highly on skills.”

Regarding London, the survey found that the UK’s largest city had fallen in its weighting for income and income distribution.

According to Centre for Cities, as cited in The Economist, the average white-collar worker in London is in the office 2.7 days a week. While this marks a half-day increase from 2023, it represents a significant fall from the 3.9 days a week average recorded before the pandemic.

The findings also indicated that just 40% of people are in the office on Fridays. As employers look for ways to increase office attendance, the Centre for Cities suggested that companies could consider subsidising commuting costs.

UK average earnings (excluding bonuses) came in line with expectations this morning, with wage growth falling to its lowest level since June 2022. Data from the ONS indicated that wages grew at 5.1% on an annualised basis in the three months up to July 2024, bringing the UK’s average weekly pay up to £647.

Against forecasts of a 4.1% print, average earnings including bonuses rose by 4% on an annualised basis over the three months to July.

When considering CPI, real earnings (excluding bonuses) rose by 3.0% on the year, easing from last month’s print of 3.2%.

As markets gear up for the Bank of England’s next interest rate decision on 19th September, the easing of wage growth may give policymakers some reason to suggest that inflationary pressures from the UK’s labour market will continue to ease.