UK Attractiveness Index league table
Cebr has updated our UK Attractiveness Index to measure how appealing the top 50 UK cities are for overseas investment.
The full methodology is contained in the appendix.
City risers and fallers
Weaker prospects for the UK explain the widespread deterioration in individual city GVA forecasts. Indeed, GVA forecasts for all cities except Reading were downgraded, which dragged on the performance of the affected cities. Inner London faced a relatively smaller downgrade in its GVA forecast, helping it maintain its top ranking. On the other hand, Southampton’s GVA forecast score fell by a considerable 24.3 points, the largest drop within our sample, resulting in the city tumbling down seven places in the overall rankings.
More generally, low business and consumer confidence arising from uncertainty, not least surrounding October’s Budget, is expected to weigh on UK economic activity for the rest of the year.
The biggest risers this quarter were Aberdeen City, Cardiff, Liverpool, and Newcastle in a positive development for the north of the UK.
All four benefited from the inclusion of the new indicator measuring the distance from a Freeport or Investment Zone, with all four cities being beneficiaries of this status.
These climbers also benefitted from relatively smaller downgrades to their GVA forecasts compared to their peers. As a result, Aberdeen, Cardiff and Newcastle all saw rank increases on the GVA Forecast indicator, while Liverpool maintained its position.
In contrast, some cities fell dramatically this quarter. Milton Keynes, again, suffered from a substantial decline in its Investment Attractiveness ranking. The city fell 18 places to finish 39th overall, following a drop of seven places in the iteration prior. Peterborough, Swindon, Brighton, and Reading round out the top five largest fallers.
As in the last report, the key commonality between these five cities is the substantial deterioration in their Growth Potential rankings. All of these cities are relatively far away from their nearest Freeport or Investment Zone, substantially weakening their Growth Potential standing.
Furthermore, Swindon, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, and Brighton all suffered double digit drops in their GVA forecast score, exacerbating their decline on the Growth Potential pillar.