Birmingham professor: Our city is a great place to live and work, despite what outsiders say

Only London boroughs, Bradford and Middlesborough/Stockton rank lower, according to PwC’s Growth for Cities Index 2024.

Read more about this here: Birmingham is 'one of the worst places to live & work in the UK', according to PwC’s 2024 Growth for Cities Index

Can Birmingham become a more attractive place for citizens to live and work?

Birmingham has a wonderful backstory that’s all too often forgotten in the quest for modernity.

Worryingly, this is despite all of the investment that’s been made into improving Birmingham in the last quarter of a century to improve its image to domestic and international markets.

Some may claim the index is based on the age-old perception that Birmingham is will always be viewed negatively by outsiders.

Nonetheless, when you read the report there’s a credible range of measurements using data by PwC to create its index of 51 cities UK with a population of at least 340,000 citizens or more.

Among the economic data there are what would be regarded as the usual metrics available from local authorities such as income per household and its distribution, unemployment rate, health (life expectancy), housing (house prices and owner occupation rate), environment, transport, skills. 

Additionally, there are figures indicating crime, work life balance, high-street shops (openings and closures) and new businesses created.

It’s notable that PwC carried out a poll of ‘circa 2,000 UK citizens of ‘working age’ to test the validity and weighting of findings from previous studies prior to developing the table. 

For the record, Plymouth, Bristol and Southampton are the top three.

So, is this table fair?

Speaking as an academic who’s spent the vast majority of my working life considering data and its implications, the answer is that data shouldn’t lie.

However, it’s worth repeating the maxim popularly attributed to former Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) that there are ‘Lies, damned lies, and statistics.’

Though there’s no record Disraeli ever stated or wrote these words, the warning is that that numerical data with manipulation or particular intent can be made to suggest different messages. 

That said, PwC’s methodology cannot be faulted and the relative positioning of cities, including Birmingham, must be judged as being based on whatever the numbers are from credible measures.

It’s likely this table will merely confirm the perception of detractors.

That Birmingham, particularly the City Council’s financial situation, resulting in it declaring itself bankrupt last year, featured so prominently in the news will have underpinned such negativity. 

Critically, what more can be done to make it an attractive place for those who might wish to come to the city to set up a new business potentially creating wealth and opportunities for others?

Significantly, the fate of manufacturing in the city – both my parents worked in this sector – exemplifies the greatest change that’s occurred in Birmingham since the 1970s.

Birmingham, which proudly proclaims its industrial heritage, and which offered large scale employment, has learned to adapt by attracting services that has undoubtedly transformed the environment and the reason for new buildings in the city centre for offices.

Unfortunately, though well-paid opportunities in commerce, many jobs in services and its ancillary functions are frequently lower paid than those lost in manufacturing. 

Worse, it’s a concern that many such jobs exist on a ‘zero hours’ basis contracts giving little stability or certainty for young people trying to purchase their own homes.

The challenge to policymakers nationally and, more crucially, locally, is to develop a range of strategies ensuring sufficient investment to improve the metrics that have been used by PwC in its index.

There needs to be far greater opportunity for innovative and creative individuals seduced to more what they believe are more glamorous places to develop their career.

Housing in Birmingham, a vital component of attracting people to any city, is much the rest of the UK; problematic. 

The construction of more high-rise accommodation in the city centre may appear to offer part of the solution but is not what those forming families require.

Affordability, of course, remains the greatest impediment to many first-time buyers and is not easy issue to fix.

Other determinants of growth used in PwC’s index including health, crime, transport and skills development, as well as the importance of a better environment, are being addressed by Richard Parker who was voted as West Midlands Mayor in May.

The mood music from Parker is positive in that he’s aware of the need for urgent change. 

However, the reality confronting the new West Midlands Combined Authority administration under Parker, similar to the new Labour government under Keir Starmer, is that public money is extremely limited. 

Moreover, every city is competing for funds available and there’s an effective ‘zero sum game’ by which one city’s gain means others lose out.

‘Levelling up’, a major plank of Boris Johnson’s promise in the 2019 election was illusory, there simply wasn’t the money available to do what Germany following reunification. 

Birmingham has a wonderful backstory that’s all too often forgotten in the quest for modernity.

Richard Vinen’s magisterial 2022 book Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain attests to the fact that there’s a long tradition of creative and hugely talented individuals who truly believed that coming to the ‘City of a Thousand Trades’ would enable them to achieve their dream.

Policy makers must focus on dealing with the all the issues that PwC’s index suggest that Birmingham is less attractive than most other cities it’s analysed.

Helpfully, before entering politics, Richard Parker was a former partner at PwC, so he’ll appreciate the data used in their latest index of cities. 

He’ll appreciate how critical it is to get Birmingham to a much higher position in the league table to demonstrate to those from elsewhere what citizens already know; that it’s a great city to live and work in.

Dr Steve McCabe

Steve is Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor, DoctorateHub [https://www.doctoratehub.com/users/753]. 

Previously, having worked for Birmingham City Council, he spent the last 35 years as an academic at Birmingham City University teaching and researching economics, management and business. Additionally, he has written extensively for edited texts examining economics and politics.

He regularly writes and comments regularly in the national and international media on politics and the economy and has published texts on quality management, benchmarking, ‘Brexit’ and its economic and social impact, the green economy and manufacturing, house prices and India’s progress since independence. Steve’s latest book on Net Zero will be published next February by Emerald.