Region 's cities achieving strong work-life balance and income distribution - report
West Midlands cities are performing above or in line with the UK average for work-life balance and income distribution, according to a key indie released today.
The cities included in PwC 's Good Growth for Cities Index - Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent - are ahead of or on par with the UK average on work-life balance, measured by an increase in the proportion of employed people working less than 45 hours a week, and income distribution, measured by the ratio of median to mean income, an indicator of wealth equity.
The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index ranks 50 of the UK 's largest cities (generally considered those with populations of at least 350,000 people), plus the London boroughs as a whole, based on the public 's assessment of 12 economic measures, including jobs, health, income, safety and skills, as well as work-life balance, housing, travel-to-work times, income equality, high street shops, environment and business startups.
Stoke-On-Trent and Wolverhampton (and Walsall) ranked above the UK average for safety, while Coventry and Stoke-On-Trent out-performed the UK average on skills in the 25+ year old age bracket and transport respectively.
Health and environment indicators were in line with the UK average across all the West Midlands cities included in the Index.
However, the report states that the West Midlands is expected to see the second weakest economic growth in both 2023 and 2024, with a growth rate of -0.20 per cent in 2023, and 0.74 per cent in 2024. This growth is lower than the UK average of 0.05 per cent in 2023 and 0.99 per cent in 2024.
Birmingham is the lowest performing West Midlands city in this year's analysis, ranking 47th out of 50 UK cities in the Index, decreasing from its 2022 ranking of 46th.
Coventry is ranked 27th out of 50 UK cities, decreasing from 21st in 2022
Wolverhampton and Walsall is ranked 37th, decreasing from 28th in 2022, while Stoke-on-Trent climbed from 26th to 21st.
Matthew Hammond (pictured), PwC UK Midlands regional market leader and Birmingham senior partner, said: “The 2022 PwC economic outlook analysis showed that the region's economic output remained around 3.3 per cent smaller than pre-pandemic levels and identified the Midlands as one of the regions with most potential for growth
“The post-pandemic opportunities which will drive inclusive growth across the region are centered on our growth stock sectors - advanced manufacturing, med tech and life sciences, digital and creative technologies, future mobility and low carbon technologies, supported by financial, business and professional services.
“Future growth sectors should be used as a roadmap of opportunity, with continued support from public and private businesses, our world class universities, local and central government.
“Combined with ambitious plans for the continued regeneration of our towns and cities, connected by several of the most significant real estate and infrastructure projects in the UK, the medium and long-term transformation opportunities are clear but yet to be fully realised.
“Birmingham City Council 's recently launched Future City framework sets out bold ambitions for the next 15 years, aligned with many of the indicators in our Index, showing the potential future good growth for the city. The West Midlands will also benefit from the recently announced investment zones.
“It is important to recognise that some of the UKs major cities rank in challenging areas of the overall outcome, but these are all those places with some of the greater extremities of scores across the weighted factors.
“Amongst the many positives for these larger cities Birmingham has also scored highly on work-life balance, reflecting other reports which set out the advantages of the city as a place to live and work. ”