Skills and jobs driving growth across cities in Yorkshire and the Humber, new report shows

Bradford, York, Sheffield, Hull, and Wakefield & Castleford each out performed their previous rankings for skills aged 25 and above or jobs. Huddersfield and Leeds saw the biggest increases in work-life balance when compared to data from 2019-2021.

York and Hull are among the top three most improved cities in the UK, driven by their performance on income distribution and jobs respectively.

York is also the top performing city in the region, alongside Wakefield & Castleford. Both rank seventh in the index, followed by Huddersfield at 25th, Leeds at 30th, Hull at 32nd, Sheffield at 42nd and Bradford at 50th.

Andy Ward, market senior partner for PwC Leeds and Bradford, said: “The Good Growth for Cities index provides an overview of how cities are performing according to the priorities of the people that live there, which is a crucial measurement. The fact that the public have made their priorities clear, and that Yorkshire has improved its performance in those key measures, is fantastic. With the changes in sectors such as energy and manufacturing, upskilling people for the future has never been more important, and focusing on improving skills will make sure the region is fit for the future.

“Our data tells us that each of the cities in Yorkshire and the Humber perform differently which demonstrates the individual challenges they each face. If we’re to deliver real economic growth, we have to start with universal building blocks like jobs, skills and affordable housing, but we can’t ignore the personalised approach, which will enable every city to grow.”

All seven of the cities included in the index have out-performed the UK average for work-life balance, and are either above or in line with the UK average for transport, income distribution and house price to earnings.

People in the Yorkshire and the Humber region place the highest priority on income distribution according to the data, with a weighting higher than that of the UK average. Safety has also seen a small increase in importance, whereas other measures, such as high streets, environment, high streets and new businesses are all in line with the UK weighting.

Plymouth is the highest performing city in the annual Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities 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, with Plymouth, Bristol, Swindon and Exeter all being among the highest performing cities, scoring above the UK average for health & safety and skills.