SCOTLAND'S cities have the skills needed to help develop into important financial centres but the health of the population is hampering their growth.
An influential report said cities scored particularly high on elements such as skills, jobs, income and transport, with all of them placing around or above the national average.
However, health remains the big stumbling block north of the border with all of Scotland's cities' workforces ranked below the national average.
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The PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) report ranked Edinburgh as the top Scottish city, coming third in the UK. Aberdeen, despite the downturn in the oil economy, came 10th.
However, Glasgow slipped down the rankings from 24th to 29th in the annual survey, but still outperformed Newcastle, Birmingham and Sheffield.
Overall, the best city in the UK was judged to be Oxford, followed by Reading.
The report measured 10 factors when judging the overall wellbeing of a city as a place to live, including jobs, health, income and skills, work-life balance, house-affordability, travel-to-work times, income equality and pollution.
PwC partner Paul Brewer said: “This year’s report has a number of positives for Scotland – jobs, skills and new businesses are the factors with the largest increase since the last survey in many cities – and in particular the skills increase across the country is to be welcomed as skill availability is a key requirement for sustainable economic growth and employment.
“But there are also issues that need addressing. The country as a whole is scoring average for owner occupation and house price to earnings but in health and work/life balance we perform below average.
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“Scotland has consistently underperformed the UK on economic inactivity through poor health and I would expect to see further debate around health-care funding and administration in Scotland with consideration given to the larger health picture including welfare, lifestyle and delivery of care.”
The report provided each city with a grade according to how well each area performed against the national average.
Glasgow received high marks for the affordability of housing compared to salaries, while Edinburgh made top spot due to its above average score in well-paying jobs, work-life balance and the skills of its workforce.
Mark Hoskyns-Abrahall, office senior partner for PwC in Edinburgh added: “These are attractive qualities that make not only the city attractive to firms looking to locate here but also for employees.
"There will no doubt be close analysis of why Edinburgh is performing so well in these areas by others, though the relevant bodies will look to address the transport issue that has been flagged up in the findings."
“Obviously it remains to be seen what impact Brexit will have on the city – and in particular the financial sector which drives so much of it – but companies appear to be beginning to make plans and policies to ensure their workforce remain relevant no matter what the future holds and that is a positive for Edinburgh."
Dundee was Scotland's worst performing city, receiving below average scores for health, the number of new business setting up and the number of houses under owner occupation.
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The turmoil facing the oil industry in the North East was reflected in Aberdeen's slump from second a few years ago to tenth overall this year, amid ongoing job losses and disruption in the property market.
Kevin Reynard, office senior partner for PwC in Aberdeen said: “Obviously this report has been prepared as the full impact of the North Sea contraction was being felt.
"Our reports this year have indicated that Aberdeen may be slowly turning the corner and there is a hope, belief and optimism that there is still a cycle of profit from within the energy sector in the North Sea.
"Critical to the future success of Aberdeen and the North East is the oil and gas industry working ever more closely together and continuing to revamp how it works.
He added: “However what we cannot predict between now and the next report is the role Brexit may play in transforming impacting the fortunes of cities across the UK.”
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