Cities Outlook is an annual economic index of the UK’s largest cities and town, produced by the influential Centre for Cities think-tank. The publication ranks the economic performance of 64 UK cities and towns on a number of indicators: including public and private sector employment trends, skills geography, earnings, and concentration of jobs in growth sectors.
Southend (which includes Southend, Rochford and Castle Point local authority areas in the survey) has performed strongly in a number of important areas:
- The number of businesses per 10,000 population in 2012 was 345.8, an increase of 1.7% on 2011. London’s percentage increase was 1.2%
- There were 45.7 business start-ups per 10,000 population in 2012, the 8th best in the UK
- It ranks in the top 10 for average weekly earnings - £523
- House prices rose on average 3.2% last year to £224,200 – the 10th biggest rise in the UK
- CO2 were the 5th lowest in the UK, at 4.3t per capita
- There has been a 20% increase in Super Fast Broadband coverage across Southend
There is, however, much room for improvement in higher education. According to the study, only 20.2% of people across Southend, Rochford and Castle Point have “high qualifications” of NVQ4 or above.
You can download a PDF of the full report here.
Please send us your comments on the findings at [email protected]
cities_outlook_2014.pdf |