Reports
Barclays Report Shows Where The Fastest GDP Growth Is In The UK

London still remains the most prosperous UK city, according to Barclays Wealth & Investments' UK Prosperity Map.
Birmingham and Newcastle saw the highest year-on-year
increase in gross domestic product per capita, at 4.4 per
cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, according the annual UK
Prosperity Map by Barclays
Wealth & Investments.
The UK Prosperity Map is compiled by Opinium on behalf
of Barclays. It ranks UK regions and cities in terms of their
affluence. A Prosperity Index score has been calculated by
Opinium for each UK city and region.
The research, against a backdrop of fluctuating conditions and
Brexit negotiations, showed that most areas of the country are
more prosperous overall than last year, in many cases cities are
outpacing their wider regions, but there are clear disparities
when it comes to GDP per capita and earnings.
Newcastle and Birmingham saw the biggest year-on-year increases
in GDP per capita, as previously mentioned. While London
continues to dominate as the UK’s most prosperous city along with
Reading (2nd), other cities saw positive trends over the last
year. Leeds changed places with Bristol to become the fourth most
prosperous city in the UK.
When it comes to house prices, almost every city has seen higher
house price growth than London (up 3 per cent), with Birmingham
(8 per cent) and Manchester (7 per cent) seeing the biggest
increases.
Such data can shed light on why certain private banks, such as
Barclays, Coutts and Julius Baer, have regional presences.
Earlier this year, Barclays' investment and wealth management
business announced it was opening an office in St Albans,
Hertfordshire. To take another example, Zurich-listed Julius Baer
announced
a new regional strategy to tap wealth beyond the usual
redoubts of London and the Southeast.
Birmingham is also booming when it comes to start-up businesses –
the city saw the highest business birth-to-death ratio of any in
the UK with 1.81 businesses being created for every closure,
beating London (1.78). At a regional level, London comes out top,
but the West Midlands as a whole also ranks highly with a
business birth-to-death ratio of 1.55.
Newcastle saw the greatest increase in average earnings of any UK
city, up 6.3 per cent – but this is not reflected in the wider
North East region, which actually saw a 0.3 per cent decrease in
earnings. And the North East is also the least prosperous region
in the UK, placed bottom of the 12 regions.
“The last twelve months have seen fluctuations in the UK economy,
and this is reflected in the mixed picture of prosperity growth
across the country in this year’s UK Prosperity Map,” said Dena
Brumpton, chief executive, wealth & investments at Barclays.
“It’s encouraging to see that people across the country are
benefiting from higher earnings and the momentum created by
greater GDP per capita.
Brumpton added: “The continued economic growth of the UK’s cities
is further cause for optimism - but if the current trend of high
prosperity growth in cities continues, regions risk being left
behind by their flourishing centres. The challenge for businesses
and policymakers is to find new ways of bridging this gap and
ensuring greater balance in how each part of the UK is sharing in
the country’s prosperity. We are continuing to work closely with
our clients to help them boost their own prosperity, whether that
is through investments, savings or planning for retirement.”
The number of wealthy individuals continues to increase: the UK’s
millionaire population grew by 7.6 per cent year-on-year in 2016.
Every region saw an increase in its number of millionaires since
last year’s research, except Scotland, which saw no change. The
East Midlands and South West saw the highest percentage growth in
their millionaire population between 2015 and 2016 (11.1 per cent
and 10.5 per cent respectively).