Understanding business leaders’ priorities for a renewed industrial strategy, and undertaking new economic analysis to assess the potential impact of improving the UK’s performance in key areas.
The UK public increasingly associates a thriving high street, better housing and transport, and access to skills, with economic success. Financial measures such as income and income distribution have previously led by a wide margin, but this year’s Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index reveals a shift towards factors that make a place feel invested in, future-focused and full of opportunity. The top performers, York, Edinburgh and Bristol, deliver on these fronts.
But this shift in public expectations comes at a time of mounting fiscal pressure, business uncertainty, and concern over how growth is experienced and shared. In this context, the places that succeed will be those that make smart choices that deliver the outcomes that matter most. The approach must be tailored. Each place must shape its own path, determined by local strengths and challenges.
Our research points towards the conditions and public priorities that can inform these choices, and the principles that help put place-led, inclusive growth into practice.
Good Growth for Cities
How are UK cities driving inclusive growth with better outcomes?
How has your city performed?
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0.44
0.38
-0.28
0.45
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0.35
0.62
0.26
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0.63
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0.30
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0.73
Good growth in practice
As part of our Good Growth for Cities research, we spoke to local leaders across sectors – from city councils, businesses and universities – to understand how places are navigating tough decisions, prioritising, and delivering better outcomes. These case studies offer insight into how cities across the UK are shaping their own path, based on local strengths and challenges.
Belfast
Building a fairer future through partnerships and insights
Belfast is growing, but not at any cost. The city is shaping its future around the needs of its people – investing in high growth sectors that create local opportunities, using data to address persistent inequalities, and investing in the foundations that support long-term, inclusive growth.
Birmingham
A pathway of opportunity through the city
Birmingham has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the UK and is gaining prominence in several key sectors. But with parts of the city facing chronic deprivation, extensive regeneration, sector clustering, and skills development offer a chance to connect these left-behind communities to the city’s growth.
Cardiff
Responding with focus, discipline and collaboration
Cardiff is the fastest-growing major city in the UK outside London. That growth brings opportunity, but also pressure on services, infrastructure and communities. In response, Cardiff is adopting a more focused approach to development.
Edinburgh
Rebalancing the benefits of prosperity
Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most prosperous cities, with strong performance across economic and social indicators. But inequality, housing pressures and workforce challenges risk undermining long-term progress. However, targeted strategies promise to improve how growth is delivered across the city and who benefits from it.
London
Adjusting course in a changing global landscape
While London remains the UK’s economic powerhouse, it faces a complex set of pressures. To close its performance gaps, strategic ambition must be paired with the kind of long-term coordination and delivery seen in its global competitors.
Stockport
Transformation through urban renewal and regional balancing
Stockport is shifting from a supporting role within Greater Manchester to a confident, competitive economic identity of its own. Previously seen as a commuter town with a lower economic base than its neighbours, Stockport is repositioning itself as a place where people choose to live, invest and grow businesses.
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