Glasgow in lowly position in table of 50 large UK cities but ‘enormous potential’

Other indicators used to determine the rankings include skills, work-life balance, house affordability, travel-to-work times, income equality, the environment, and business start-up rates.

READ MORE: Brexit: Tory MP’s red tape bellyaching beggars belief: Ian McConnell

Robin McBurnie, senior partner at PwC’s Glasgow office, flagged a below-average performance from Scotland’s largest city across several indicators including health, income, and job creation.

However, he also underlined Glasgow’s “enormous potential”.

PwC estimates the average annual economic growth rate for cities in Scotland in 2021 would have been 7.1 per cent. It notes this is slightly below the UK average rate of 7.4% for 2021. PwC says that Aberdeen and Edinburgh are showing the strongest levels of recovery, growing by around 7.5% and 7.6% respectively in 2021, with Glasgow’s expansion last year put at 6.7%. The firm declares that, in 2022, these trends are expected to continue, with the economies of Aberdeen and Edinburgh expected to expand by 5.5%, greater than the projected UK average growth rate of up to 5.1%. Glasgow is forecast to grow by 4.4% in 2022.

Referring to the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in November, Mr McBurnie said: “We saw last year with COP26 how Glasgow is a modern, vibrant city with global relevance. However, its low placing on the index highlights long-term challenges within the city. Glasgow performs below average in a number of key indicators, including health, income and job creation.”

He added: “However, our city is one of enormous potential, with skills, equality in income, work-life balance and housing affordability all above average. There are enormous efforts under way in the city to improve our infrastructure and housing needs while work on both sides of the river shows Glasgow’s appeal as both a business and tourism centre.”

READ MORE: Brexit: trade: Tory hot air will not make grim reality float off: Ian McConnell

PwC said “Scotland’s cities are emerging from the pandemic with renewed priorities, largely focused on fairness, the environment and an improved work-life balance”. The firm added that, for this year’s index, the weighting of existing variables had changed after polling showed “public opinion on what was important has shifted considerably in the wake of the pandemic”.

It noted: “Jobs and skills, two of the most important variables last year, see significant decreases in their importance in the updated index. In contrast, the environment and income distribution have seen significant increases.”

PwC noted two new indicators – safety, and high street and shops – had been added to the index, taking the number of variables measured to 12.

It said cities across Scotland “perform well across three key criteria: skills, where all cities score at or above the national average; transport, where all cities score at or above average; and house price to earnings, where the cities included in the index score significantly above average”. However, it added that Scottish cities scored less well on health, new businesses and owner-occupation of housing.

The accountancy firm concluded “the report underlines how the north-south divide continues to present a challenge for the UK, with Oxford, Bournemouth, Swindon, Reading and Milton Keynes making up the top five in the overall index while cities in the North and Midlands largely account for those that sit at the bottom”.

Matthew Hall, senior partner at PwC’s Edinburgh office, said: "Edinburgh remains the best-performing city in Scotland and benefits from [being the] historic home to many large financial services businesses, as well as the home of the Scottish Parliament.

"However, our research shows that whilst the city has a great deal of high-paid jobs and low-paid jobs, there is a significant shortage between the two – pointing to a missing middle in Edinburgh's workforce."