Every part of the UK is more prosperous than it was last year, with uplifts in either household wealth, GDP, household expenditure and earnings – and a decrease in unemployment, according to the second edition of the annual Barclays Prosperity Map.

As per the index, one in every 67 Britisher is a millionaire – up by a third since 2010.

Despite uncertain economic conditions during the year caused by volatile stock markets, China’s slowdown and the lead up to Brexit, Barclays’ Prosperity Index showed an overall uplift in prosperity across every region of the UK in comparison to last year’s study.

The research uses factors including number of millionaires, average annual pay, the percentage of households giving to charity, business growth rates and exam scores to generate a unique ‘Prosperity Index Score’ for each UK region.

Although London continues to be the most prosperous city overall, other UK cities are emerging as prosperity hot-spots, thanks to the rising house prices and entrepreneurship.

In a sign of their status as increasingly attractive areas to live and work, both Bristol and Cambridge saw higher growth in house prices than London, at 14 per cent for Cambridge and 13 per cent for Bristol, compared to just 11 per cent in London.

Cities outside of London and the South East also performed strongly on entrepreneurial activity too, with Manchester, Cardiff and Sheffield all seeing some of the largest increases in SME turnover at 15 per cent, 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively – a strong indicator of growing prosperity in these areas.

Paul Swinney, the principal economist, Centre for Cities, said: "While it is encouraging to see some cities comparing favourably to London and the South East on some of the key measures in the Prosperity Index, it is important to remember that there is still some way to go to ensure that everyone in the UK can enjoy equal levels of prosperity."
 
"A large part of this will be investment in skills, particularly in areas which are still recovering from the decline in traditional industries. The most vibrant places are those which have high-skilled workforces, and which have focused on supporting firms and employment in the knowledge-based service sectors," stated Swinney.

"By making these issues a priority, regions across the UK can start attract more of the industries and jobs which offer the best prospects of long-term growth and prosperity," he added.

Scottish wealth boom

Scotland led the way in terms of increase in household wealth, rising by 13 per cent since 2015, beating both London (up 12 per cent) and the South East (up 11 per cent).

This contributed to the Scottish region moving up the overall Prosperity Index ranking by three places to 7th overall. This increase in wealth may be down to the large increase in private pension wealth in particular, where the median increased by 60 per cent, compared with 24 per cent for Wales and 19 per cent for England, it added.-TradeArabia News Service