La Dolce Vita – Birmingham quality of life matches Rome and beats Dubai
The city council may be half way through a £800 million spending cuts programme, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Birmingham has been ranked as having the highest quality of life of any UK city outside of the capital by the Mercer Quality of Living Report 2015.
In fact, there’s a touch of la dolce vita since Birmingham is placed at jointly with Rome, the Eternal City, in 52nd place out of 230 rankings in the annual survey.
Even international hot spots such as Hong Kong, Miami and Dubai can’t compete with Birmingham.
The announcement cheered city council leader Sir Albert Bore, who had already pointed to Birmingham’s booming economy in his annual budget speech.
Sir Albert commented on the Mercer survey:
Birmingham’s ranking as the best place to live in the UK outside of London is confirmation of what its growing numbers of residents have known for some time.
The city’s exceptional offer benefits its residents, visitors and workers alike and make it a vibrant, attractive city unlike any other in the UK.
With everything from shopping to culture, international sporting events to Michelin-starred restaurants on our doorstep, it’s little wonder that this report has confirmed Birmingham’s position as an outstanding place to live.
This will be an exceptional year for Birmingham, with the city hosting both the Rugby World Cup and the Ashes, as well as the arrival of the Grand Central development with its flagship John Lewis store and city cultural celebrations. With all this to offer, we hope Birmingham will hold onto its UK leading ranking for some time.
The ranking announcement follows figures showing that Birmingham’s Christmas offering attracted record footfall and consumer spend in 2014 – with 5.5 million visitors spending an all-time high of £397 million across the city.
The ranking has also recently been reflected in Office for National Statistics figures, which revealed that the city was the leading choice for young professionals leaving the capital. More than 5,450 thirtysomethings flocked to Birmingham in 2013.
Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham – which operates the city’s inward investment programme, Business Birmingham – said:
Recent Government statistics suggest that there are more people choosing to move to Birmingham than ever before.
People are increasingly seeing our region as an obvious choice to build a career and raise a family. It offers all the cultural attractions of the capital but also provides excellent schools, affordable homes and amenities.
Birmingham’s quality of living is central to the city’s appeal, and will be showcased at MIPIM – an international real estate event attended by major cities – to attract the interest of global investors later this month.
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