The report – Cities Outlook 2010 – suggests that, thanks to its highly qualified workforce, large numbers of people working in knowledge intensive industries and the highest private sector jobs growth in the UK over the last decade, Brighton & Hove will be less affected by recession than other cities in the south-east.

The report says: “It is notable that there is a correlation between cities’ performance on high skills, and their concentration of knowledge-intensive businesses. Cambridge, Edinburgh, Reading, London and Brighton are high-performers in both indices, reinforced by the presence of top universities, indicating that their economies are particularly well-placed to attract jobs and growth”.

Strong earnings growth over the last ten years has placed us in the top ten although the city is still below the south east average for workplace and residential earnings. Brighton & Hove comes second in the rankings for numbers of business created compared to the size of the population.

Largely thanks to a very limited amount of heavy industry and manufacturing Brighton & Hove’s CO2 emissions are low enough to place it fifth in the rankings.

The other four UK cities it identifies as "ones to watch" are Reading, York, Oxford and Cambridge.

For a copy of the full report click on the link below.

Click here to download Cities Outlook 2010