Hull has been named the third-most improved UK city as a place to live and work.
According to a new report, The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index 2018 Hull outperformed a number of cities. Cities Hull beat included Birmingham, Liverpool and also Manchester.
Councillor Daren Hale from the City Council welcomed the report’s findings saying the City of Culture status played a key role.
“We welcome this improvement. This follows what has been a tremendous year for Hull and the Humber region in terms of investment and growth,” he said. “The results can be directly attributed to investment, Hull’s year as UK City of Culture. Also due to Hull City Council’s determination to address some of the effects of austerity.”
“There is a very strong link on Hull’s performance and the increase in performance of the Humber.”
“The growth in the city has had a beneficial impact on that of the Humber region. Underpinning the case for the Humber economic unit.”
The index shows almost all major UK cities improved their score relative to the 2017 index, driven primarily by rising employment.
Cities that have seen the biggest improvements in their score have also experienced large falls in unemployment in recent years.
Report Shows Hull Out Performs Other Major UK Cities
John Hawksworth, a chief economist at PwC certainly agrees that the decline in unemployment has helped most UK cities.
“Almost all UK cities have seen improved good growth scores in recent years,” he said. “This is driven primarily by cyclical falls in unemployment rates.”
“These have now rippled out from the South East to regions like the North East that were previously lagging behind.”
The report set out to show that there’s more to life, work and general well-being than just measuring GDP. Based on last years figures only Preston and also Middlesbrough-Stockton were the only cities in the UK to outperform Hull.
