Cities Outlook 2014

Our annual health check of the largest cities and towns asks: does London help or hinder other UK city economies?

Report published on 27 January 2014 by Centre for Cities

Now in its seventh year, Cities Outlook 2014 is the authoritative economic index of the 64 largest cities and towns in the UK. Cities Outlook 2014 sets out how different cities are set to fare in the year ahead. Now that the UK is staging a recovery, which cities are leading the way? And are any still suffering stagnation?

Cities Outlook 2014’s special focus is on London and its relationship to other cities. It shows that the Capital is leading the economic recovery, and its longstanding economic strength continues to attract talented workers from across the country. But the report also highlights that many of our largest cities are also showing green shoots of growth, with Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Leeds all delivering large numbers of private sector jobs, while cities like Cambridge, Reading and Bristol perform well on skills and employment.

Cities Outlook also makes the case that devolving more funding and powers to UK cities – London and others – so they can generate more of their own income and respond to the different strengths and weaknesses of their economy will be critical to ensuring this is a sustainable, job-rich recovery.

See our infographics on how cities vary, and why giving more of our cities more control over their money is important. (click the images below for a larger image)

Cities-outlook-2014-1                       Cities-outlook-2014-2

Check out broadcast coverage of the report on Radio 4’s TodayBBC 5Live,NewsnightITV News and Channel 4 News. The story also appeared on BBC News, the GuardianTimes (£), FT (£), Daily Mail and made the front page of the Independent. For commentry on the report, have a look at the Evening Standard’s leader and comment piece, the GuardianIndependentSpectatorLeft Foot Forward and SERC blog.

Cities Outlook 2014 contains a wealth of data on all 64 Primary Urban Areas we look at. For all the data for your city, and to see how it fares against the rest go to www.citiesoutlook.org.

For more information, or if you would like a hard copy of Cities Outlook and its accompaning Cities Factbook please contact John Kavanagh with your full address and number of copies you would like. We can also supply high resolution images of any of those featured in the report, please contact Rita Beden.

For any media enquiries please contact Sophie Gaston.