Belfast Proves A Hit In Quality Of Life Survey

Early in October we were able to report that Cardiff had come top of a survey  focused on the needs of young adults. Now it is Belfast’s turn to bask in the sunshine as it has been placed ahead of luminaries such as Liverpool, Manchester and London in a UK wide survey of the best cities to live and work in.

The PwC/Demos survey covered 39 cities that were measured with ten criteria based on economic performance and quality of life.  Points that were considered important included jobs, health, income, skills, work-life balance, house prices, commuting times, inequality and pollution. Although not rated top in what is considered quite a searching survey, Belfast rose to ninth place, a vast improvement on last year’s position of sixteenth.

Belfast enjoys success in an important survey

The report is entitled “Good Growth For Cities”, and PwC said it chose the categories as they were "defined by the public and business as key to economic success and personal and family wellbeing". The parameters of the criteria therefore mean that it creates a more level playing field so that cities such as Belfast and Aberdeen rank higher than they would if economic performance or employment were the sole criteria - those measures where cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester, normally dominate.

Commenting on the research, Dr Esmond Birnie, PwC chief economist in Northern Ireland said:

 “The financial crisis and subsequent downturn has provoked a lot of debate around economic growth and just what good growth looks like, so it’s no surprise that the public is now considering other issues as integral to the bigger economic picture.

“The public considers traditional measures of economic success –jobs and income as critical to growth but health, work-life balance, transport infrastructure and affordable housing also feature as important.

“Our findings suggest a good growth measurement approach could, particularly in a time of austerity, help government and local authorities focus their investment and resource allocation on the things that matter most to the public.”

Dr. Birnie concluded: “This report puts Belfast’s position as a UK city into context. We may complain about traffic congestion and lower than average wages, but compared to other UK cities and as measured by these broader ‘good growth’ categories, Belfast compares very favourably with some of the biggest cities in England and Scotland.”