Living standards rose over twice as fast as the rest of the UK in 11 cities and towns – Cities Outlook 2026

Monday, 26 January 2026 00:01

Living standards grew by 5.2 per cent in 11 top-performing places – including Warrington and Barnsley – since 2013, compared to 2.4 per cent across the UK People in UK cities and towns would be £3,200 better off if all cities and towns matched top performers on disposable income growth Planning reform, devolution and Industrial Strategy are key to delivering the economic growth needed to improve living standards, says Centre for Cities...Request free trial

Living standards grew by 5.2 per cent in 11 top-performing places – including Warrington and Barnsley – since 2013, compared to 2.4 per cent across the UK
People in UK cities and towns would be £3,200 better off if all cities and towns matched top performers on disposable income growth
Planning reform, devolution and Industrial Strategy are key to delivering the economic growth needed to improve living standards, says Centre for Cities

In a decade that saw disposable incomes increase by only 2.4 per cent nationally, Cities Outlook 2026 shows they increased over twice as fast in 11 UK cities and large towns.

Places including Warrington, Bristol, Barnsley and Brighton bucked the national trend of slow growth in living standards since 2013, when the UK economy started recovering from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

These places' performance shows that the Government's economic growth milestone – ensuring economic growth is felt by everyone, everywhere by the end of this parliament – relies on achieving faster living standards growth in the UK's urban economies.

As a group, the top-performing cities and towns experienced economic growth of 27 per cent between 2013 and 2023 – compared to 18.4 per cent nationally – and delivered total real-terms disposable income growth of 5.2 per cent.

Had all 63 of the UK's largest cities and towns experienced the same rate of disposable income growth as top performers since 2013, their residents – over half of the UK population – would have pocketed an extra £3,200 on average in disposable income.

Largest growth in living standards in the UK, 2013-23

Top performers	Total disposable income growth 2013-2023	Total economic growth 2013-2023
Brighton	8.1%	38.3%
Worthing	7.8%	29.4%
London	5.8%	18.9%
Barnsley	5.6%	18.9%
Warrington	5.3%	41.0%
Bristol	4.6%	31.4%
Wakefield	4.6%	23.9%
Doncaster	4.4%	27.8%
Chatham	4.3%	22.8%
Preston	4.0%	22.6%
Milton Keynes	2.9%	22.7%
Top group average	5.2%	27%
UK	2.4%	18.4%

Source: ONS, Centre for Cities calculations. See below for the complete data table.

Places where real-terms living standards have declined have missed out on pocketing larger sums. For example, in Cambridge – where real-terms disposable incomes declined by 3 per cent in total since 2013 – residents would have pocketed an extra £10,900 over the decade if the city had matched top-performing places. For residents of Wigan – which saw a 1.6 per cent fall in real-terms disposable incomes since 2013 – the figure is £7,200.

Centre for Cities identifies three key areas for delivering faster living standards growth:

Strengthening local economies, with a focus on growing ‘cutting-edge' industries.
Giving households better access to the opportunities of growth, by encouraging more people into work, providing skills support, and improving transport links.
Reducing constraints on housing and commercial space so growing places can reach their potential.

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, says:

“It is understandable that the Government has shifted its emphasis onto the cost of living in recent weeks, but ultimately it is stronger economic growth that raises household incomes. Without growth, cost-of-living fixes can only ever be temporary.

“Nationally, the last decade has delivered the same amount of growth in living standards as we typically experienced in a single year prior to 2008.

“In places like Warrington and Barnsley, economic growth has translated into higher household incomes and less deprivation. That isn't accidental: it is shaped by policy choices on skills, transport, housing, and support for businesses.

“The Government's planning reforms, devolution agenda and Industrial Strategy are crucial for supporting growth in cities and delivering better living standards year after year. Cities need to support more jobs in the new economy – in sectors backed by the Industrial Strategy like life sciences, digital and AI. These jobs cluster in urban areas and generate benefits for those working in the ‘everyday economy', too.

“As the Prime Minister has said, 2026 needs to be the year that ‘politics shows it can help again'. The test, at the end of this year, will be whether we are seeing more jobs, higher wages, and stronger local growth in more places across the country.”

ENDS

Notes

Centre for Cities is the leading independent think tank dedicated to improving the economies of the UK's largest cities and towns. It is a charity that works with local authorities, business and Whitehall to develop and implement policy that supports the performance of urban economies. It does this through impartial research and knowledge exchange. For more information, visit https://www.centreforcities.org/about/
Cites Outlook 2026 is the 19^th edition of Centre for Cities' annual snapshot of the economic performance of the UK's 63 largest cities and towns. It is published at 00.01am on Monday 26 January 2026 at the following URL:
https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2026/
Data: The source for disposable incomes is ONS figures for local-level Gross Disposable Household Income, 1998-2023. Figures are adjusted for inflation and put into actual cash flow terms using methodology in Judge & McCurdy (2022). Figures for economic growth refer to GVA data from ONS. Local data for each place is calculated at Primary Urban Area geography.
Knowledge-based jobs: Data on private-sector knowledge intensive business services jobs (‘knowledge-based jobs') for each Primary Urban Area is calculated using Business Register and Employment Survey data, 2015-2024.

Ranking of the UK's 63 largest cities and towns by living standards growth since 2013:

Rank	Cities and large towns	Total disposable income growth 2013-2023 (%)	Total GVA growth 2013-2023 (%)
1	Blackburn*	11.7	26.8
2	Mansfield**	8.3	6.6
3	Brighton	8.1	38.3
4	Worthing	7.8	29.4
5	London	5.8	18.9
6	Barnsley	5.6	18.9
7	Warrington	5.3	41.0
8	Newport**	5.1	14.8
9	Luton*	4.8	31.1
10	Bristol	4.6	31.4
11	Wakefield	4.6	23.9
12	Doncaster	4.4	27.8
13	Derby**	4.3	3.2
14	Chatham	4.3	22.8
15	Southend**	4.2	15.4
16	Hull**	4.2	11.3
17	Portsmouth**	4.1	4.9
18	Preston	4.0	22.6
19	Blackpool**	3.9	8.8
20	Basildon**	3.1	9.5
21	Plymouth**	2.9	12.3
22	Milton Keynes	2.9	22.7
23	Birmingham	2.5	14.8
24	Huddersfield	2.4	21.0
25	Oxford	2.4	20.3
26	Manchester	2.4	34.2
27	Newcastle	2.3	24.0
28	Telford	1.8	22.9
29	Sheffield	1.8	14.2
30	Bournemouth	1.6	16.7
31	Leeds	1.5	28.1
32	Liverpool	1.5	22.7
33	Cardiff	1.4	22.7
34	Peterborough	1.4	23.5
35	Southampton	1.1	6.8
36	Leicester	1.1	11.3
37	York	1.0	18.3
38	Swansea	0.9	11.9
39	Crawley	0.8	31.6
40	Slough	0.8	32.6
41	Gloucester	0.6	6.3
42	Coventry	0.5	12.2
43	Aldershot	0.3	42.6
44	Northampton	0.2	20.1
45	Nottingham	0.2	12.7
46	Bradford	0.0	7.1
47	Middlesbrough	0.0	8.7
48	Stoke	-0.2	18.8
49	Sunderland	-0.2	2.7
50	Ipswich	-0.2	18.1
51	Burnley	-0.9	14.2
52	Birkenhead	-1.1	16.3
53	Belfast	-1.5	27.8
54	Wigan	-1.6	18.4
55	Glasgow	-2.3	20.5
56	Edinburgh	-2.6	30.6
57	Reading	-2.6	59.6
58	Norwich	-2.6	21.9
59	Swindon	-2.7	19.9
60	Dundee	-3.0	5.7
61	Cambridge	-3.0	30.1
62	Exeter	-3.0	16.4
63	Aberdeen	-18.8	-18.1
	Top UK performers	5.2	27
	Total UK	2.4	18.4

Source: ONS, Centre for Cities calculations. Note: *Blackburn and Luton outpaced the national average in economic and income growth over the period but are not included in top performers due to starting from unusually low bases in 2013. **These cities outpaced national disposable income growth but underperformed on economic growth.