Birmingham – Best Place to Live in UK

Posted on by Aspen Woolf UK

Birmingham Retains Rank as UK’s Best Place to Live, Fourth Year In a Row.

Birmingham residents can celebrate again after the city won a coveted accolade for the fourth year running.

If you live in Birmingham you’ve got every reason to be smiling today. Birmingham was listed in Rough Guides Top Ten Cities to visit in 2015 late last year. Now, the UK’s second city has been recognised yet again for having the highest quality of life of any UK city outside the capital.

The city retained its number one spot in the global Mercer Quality of Living Report 2015 for a fourth year running. This has put Birmingham ahead of international hotspots such as Dubai, Miami, and Hong Kong.

Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “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.”

2015 is looking set to be another golden year for Birmingham as the city builds upon its reputation as a tourism destination by welcoming the Rugby World Cup and Ashes cricket, new retail outlets like John Lewis and key cultural celebrations for the year ahead. Adding to this the Grand Central development at New Street that is well under way.

Figures were also recently released showing that Birmingham’s festive offering attracted record footfall and consumer spend in 2014 – with 5.5m visitors spending an all-time high of £397m across the city.

ONS figures have also revealed that the city was the leading choice for young professionals leaving the capital (London). In 2013 alone, 5,450 thirty-somethings moved into Birmingham looking for a better quality of life. Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, explained that the city offers excellent facilities for young families.

“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,” he said.

“It offers all the cultural attractions of the capital but also provides excellent schools, affordable homes and amenities.”

Birmingham is to showcase at international real estate event MIPIM later this month in Cannes, in its campaign to attract the interest of global investors.

Birmingham’s popularity as a vibrant, young city still shows no sign of wavering as it remains the hot spot for young professionals who are being priced out of London.

Our clients are always telling us how much Birmingham has to offer and cite this as one of the reasons they choose to hold investments there, so we are thrilled and extremely proud that Birmingham is once again receiving the recognition it deserves.