Leicester has been ranked as the top city in the East Midlands to live and work as part of an influential nationwide industry report.
The city scored above the UK average in a range of areas looking at its economic growth, skills, work-life balance and other measures.
The findings come from the Demos/PwC Good Growth for Cities Index, which ranked the city against other towns and cities both across the region and the rest of the UK.
Leicester is the highest performing city in the East Midlands and comes 16th out of 50 cities in the index overall.
Analysts found the city performs well in terms of overall economic growth, and scores above the UK average in work-life balance, new businesses, transport, skills across all age groups, income distribution and safety.
It is in line with the UK average on jobs, health, owner-occupier rates and the environment.
City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “This is very encouraging news and reflects the considerable amount of inward investment and focus on jobs and skills in the city over the past decade or so.
“In recent years we’ve seen the development of the Space Park and Waterside area of the city, with a view to nurturing specialist industry skills within the city and retain the wealth of knowledge from our university graduates.
“The huge amount of work we’ve done under the Connecting Leicester programme, the Leicester Bus Partnership and the current proposals to radically improve our railway station all help to make the city more easily accessible for both work and leisure.
“Improving a city, both in physical redevelopment and in terms of jobs and skills, is continually a work in progress but the findings of this research show Leicester offers a good balance of life, work and transport that is the best in the region.”
Elsewhere in the East Midlands, Nottingham was ranked 36th out of 50, Northampton 42nd and Derby 24th.
Alex Hudson, Market Senior Partner for PwC East Midlands, added: “The outlook in the East Midlands is a positive one, and it’s pleasing to see our cities generally fairing well in our analysis this year.
“Aligned with the government’s Levelling Up agenda, local government and employers have a part to play in providing opportunities for people to grow their businesses, careers and skills right across the region.”
More details of the Demos-PwC report are available from the PwC website at: http://ow.ly/e3rl50Oww1J
