London ranks 40th out of 50 cities across the UK. London (boroughs only) ranks near the bottom of the index, placing 48th.
Notably, London does not score near the average for any variables, always coming significantly above or below the average. London scores particularly well in three key areas:
- New businesses per head: Where London achieves a score of 2.77, compared to the national average of -0.11.
- Income: Where London achieves a score of 2.12, the third highest score for income this year.
- High streets: Where it scores the highest of any city, with a score of 2.40 compared to an average of -0.12.
However, it is clear from the rest of its scores that London pays a price for this success with particularly low scores for:
- House price to earnings: Where it scores considerably below the UK average.
- Owner occupation: Which is strongly correlated to the house price to earnings.
- Transport: Where London achieves a score of -2.58 for the Travel to Work Area and -2.74 when assessing the boroughs only.
Assessing the potential economic recovery from COVID-19
- The average annual economic growth rate as measured by Gross Value Added (GVA) in London is 7.4% in 2021. This is slightly above the UK average rate of 7.3% during the year.
- London sees a slightly above average economic recovery in 2022, driven by a strong underlying sector composition, and the significant reduction London has seen in the percentage of people claiming Universal Credit. London’s estimated growth rate in 2022 is 4.7%.