BELFAST has slipped to near the bottom of a growth table of UK cities.
The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities 2019 index, puts Belfast at 34th in the table of 42, while Derry remains at the bottom of a table of 11 smaller cities across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The index is based on ten indicators, based around how the public view issues key to economic success and wellbeing like employment, health, income and skills.
Housing affordability, commuting times, environmental factors and income inequality are also factored in, as is the number of new business start-ups.
The index considers cities with a surrounding population of at least 250,000. Oxford, Reading and Southampton have topped the index for the fourth year running.
Despite falling down the rankings, PwC said Belfast was the fourth most improved UK city since the financial crisis. Only London, Liverpool and Newcastle saw a better improvement in their index score since the 2007-08 crisis.
The report described Derry as the biggest improver of the 11 ‘devolved cities’ since 2015-17. The city saw above average growth in income distribution as well as improvements in new jobs, income, new businesses, skills and a reduction in carbon emissions.
But measures around health, economic inactivity and long-term illness kept it at the bottom of the table.
Belfast’s slippage from its position at 26th in 2016 to 34th has been put down to a combination of factors, including housing affordability, income distribution, reduced owner occupation and an increase in the number of people working more than 45 hours per week.
The biggest decline for Belfast surrounded commuting times.
However there were some areas of positivity. Belfast saw the greatest improvement in skills for 16-24 year-olds, with indicators around new businesses, income and environment reflecting signs of improvement.
David Quinn, PwC NI partner said: “With two City Deals now on the table for Northern Ireland, there is a critical window of opportunity for stakeholders to work collaboratively on a shared and credible economic future and seize the potential in these large-scale investments.
“With Belfast and Derry performing well in terms of bringing in new jobs, it’s important that lessons learned from achieving this goal are now applied to other areas.”
