Liverpool is the fastest growing non-capital in Britain

Liverpool is the fastest growing non-capital in Britain

In a recent article on City Metric Jonn Elledge noted that since 1998, measured on the size of the economy as a whole, the fastest growing non-capital among Britain’s major cities had been Liverpool.

He goes on to say that he had been crunching the numbers from the data that had been provided by the Centre for Cities’ database, and come up with this outcome having looked at job figures, investment figures, property prices, yields, new business start-ups, GVA, and a number of other metrics.

Liverpool has been hitting the headlines for all the right reasons recently. Currently one of the hottest cities across the entire UK, the home of The Beatles has been on everybody’s radar for a booming local economy thanks, in part, to the success of the Northern Powerhouse cities. The region continues to grow quickly, taking the mantle largely from London as the hub of activity for new business and investment.

Take, for example, the fact that whilst London property prices continue to heave under the pressure of low demand, Liverpool has the best buy to let yields in the entire country according to Totally Money’s rental yield map. Manchester, unsurprisingly, ranks just below and the two are joined by geographical neighbours Hull, Sheffield and Leeds.

According to Elledge, when examining the the Centre for Cities’ database, between 1998 and 2016 Liverpool’s economy grew by a factor of 2.1% – more than any major British city except London, Edinburgh or Cardiff.

Some of the explanations that Elledge offers up for this success are, firstly, that the city was operating from a very low base. After the 80’s the local economy was largely reduced and the city was at a pretty low ebb, subsequently putting it some way behind its neighbours and contemporaries. With that in mind it was almost harder for Liverpool to not grow as quickly as it did given the economic boom of the early to mid-2000’s.

Secondary to that theory, but not mutually exclusive to the previous idea, is that the fact that the city was named European Capital of Culture in 2008, something which local government and organisers planned for relentlessly for five years ensuring that the events they put on were matched by infrastructure for tourism that would leave a legacy that has far outlasted the event itself.

Both theories carry weight but also it must be said that most economic figures that concentrate on the current upturn point to innovative local businesses, two top quality universities and a resurgent property market.

As a place to invest in buy to let, Liverpool has ranked very highly for some time but now it also ranks as the fastest growing economy outside of the capitals, something which I can hope the majority of us can agree the city absolutely deserves.

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