Sheffield, Leeds, Wakefield and Castleford strongest performing towns and cities in Yorkshire says Demos-PwC survey

The Steel City, along with Leeds, Wakefield and Castleford, has one of the fastest growing economies in in the region.

The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index ranks 50 of the UK’s largest town and cities, plus the London boroughs as a whole, based on the assessment of 12 key economic wellbeing factors, including jobs, health, income and skills, as well as work-life balance, house affordability, travel-to-work times, income equality, environment and business start-ups.

A spokesman said: "The latest Index, released today, shows that cities across the region are performing well against measures such as work-life balance, transport and income distribution.

"However, despite the high scoring in some key areas, the region performs poorly in several other variables, including health, new businesses per head, and safety, where only a few cities perform at or above the national average for each variable."

Overall, Leeds has performed the strongest out of the cities in Yorkshire, placing it 30th out of 51, followed by Wakefield and Castleford at 31, and Sheffield at 32.

Justin Martin, devolved and local government lead for PwC, said: “We’re emerging from the pandemic with a new set of priorities, largely focused around fairness, the environment and work-life balance.

"It’s likely that the way we have lived over the past two years has led to people reflecting on what they value the most. This appears to be having a significant impact on the fortunes of different places, with the cities that perform well not only having strong local authorities but also being characterised by strong environmental and safety credentials.

“While the vision set out in the Levelling Up White Paper centred primarily around geographic inequality, it did recognise that there are multiple societal disparities which affect people and could hinder the economic recovery. We know from our research that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds are the most likely to have been negatively impacted as a result of the pandemic.

“Central government, local government and businesses all have a role to play in developing localised plans to address not only the regional inequalities but the societal gaps that also exist within their cities, towns and communities.”