Towns and cities in the North of England have topped a leaderboard of the best locations for flexible working, with Stockport the highest ranking town.
Self-storage company, Ready Steady Store compiled the leaderboard assessing a variety of factors to determine the best locations in the UK for flexible working; their analysis considered:
- Number of remote jobs available in a 25-mile radius
- Life satisfaction out of 10
- Average number of parks, public gardens or playing fields within 1,000m radius
- 5G availability
- Average cost of living
- Average cost of two-bed rent
Stockport topped the firm’s list of towns with an overall score of 24, scoring particularly highly for the percentage of remote working jobs being offered locally, access to green spaces and life satisfaction. Three other towns in the North-west also featured in the top 5: Warrington, St Helens and Blackburn.
The publication of the analysis comes following Equalities Minister Liz Truss’s comments calling for businesses to make flexible working the default to drive productivity and improve diversity in the workforce.
Ready Steady Store found that towns on the edges of larger cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool, offered the best-of-both-worlds to those looking for flexible living, with easy access to jobs in larger cities, as well as access to more rural settings.
The North of England also dominated the firm’s ranking of flexible working options for UK cities, with Bradford claiming the top spot, with Stoke, Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool all featuring in the top 10; Manchester ranked in 14th position, with a score of 21.2.
Mehran Chania, CEO of Ready Steady Store commented:
With more and more businesses recruiting from a wider pool and many of us now working much more flexibly, it’s no surprise that people are taking advantage of the affordability of smaller towns and cities. What’s interesting to note, however, is that those that topped the list were all located near to major towns or cities. This is proof that it’s not just working from home that’s important, but flexibility as a whole – people want to work from anywhere, but also be able to travel into the office easily a few times a week, so it’s important they’re not too far removed from the city.”