Leeds moves up the city rankings

Cushman & Wakefield's annual European Cities Monitor, which ranks the best European cities to locate a business, places Leeds at 23rd, up from 24th last year.

It puts the city ahead of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Rome, Moscow and Athens.

The report is based on interviews with senior executives from 500 of Europe's biggest companies and looks at the range of factors considered by companies when deciding where to locate their business operations.

Key factors are cost and availability of qualified staff, access to markets, external transport links and quality of telecommunications.

Leeds has improved its ranking in terms of quality of telecommunications and external transport links.

It currently ranks 10th for cost of staff, 16th for access to markets, 17th for availability of qualified staff, 18th for external transport links and 20th for quality of telecommunications.

The city's office market has retained its position as number one in Europe for value for money for the third consecutive year.

Coun Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, said: "With Trinity Leeds, the 350m retail and leisure development by Land Securities, now back on site and preparatory work underway on the new Leeds Arena, there is a real sense of momentum developing and we expect Leeds to continue to make progress up the rankings."

Gary Williamson, chief executive of Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, added: "What this survey shows is that, despite one of the most serious recessions in living memory, the Leeds economy has the strength and resilience to consolidate and improve its competitive position within Europe."