Ten times more jobs created in London than next best city

Research by the Centre for Cities think-tank revealed that London accounted for 80 per cent of national private sector employment growth between 2010 and 2012.

In contrast, many cities – among them Bradford, Blackpool and Glasgow – have seen huge losses in both private and public sectors.

Among those faring worst, Bradford lost nearly 7,000 jobs, Sheffield suffered a net loss of nearly 5,000 posts, Doncaster lost 4,000 and Hull 1,000. Although Leeds saw 4,200 private sector jobs created, it lost nearly 5,000 in the public sector.

For every public sector job created in the capital, two were lost in other cities, the study found.

In the two years to 2012, there were 216,000 private sector and 66,300 public sector jobs created in London, compared with losses of 7,800 and 6,800 in Glasgow, said the think-tank. It listed Edinburgh, Birmingham and Liverpool as creating significant numbers of private sector jobs.

The report said: “London remains the UK’s economic power house and is pivotal to the UK’s future success.”

Its chief executive Alexandra Jones said: “The gap between London and other UK cities is widening and we are failing to make the most of cities’ economic potential. Devolving more funding and powers to UK cities so they can generate more of their own income and play to their different strengths will be critical to ensuring this is a sustainable, job-rich recovery.”

Cities Minister Greg Clark said the flagship City Deals programme launched in 2012 gave them more power to drive growth and since then they had “gained momentum”.

He added: “For Britain to prosper, our cities must prosper. They are the engines of growth for the national economy in a world where cities are increasingly competing against others around the world for jobs and investment.