Young people should head to Manchester and the North of England in search of jobs and affordable homes according to a report out today.
The Intergenerational Foundation, an independent, non-party-political charity that researches fairness between the generations, concludes that Manchester appears to offer the best match between affordable housing and the opportunity for graduate employment (especially if you include other parts of Greater Manchester which also score highly, such as Stockport and Bury), followed by Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham.
Whilst London and the South East’s dominance as a magnet for ambitious young workers is clearly good for the city’s economy, as its skills base is continually resupplied with fresh talent, and people who work in London generally enjoy a significant earnings premium compared to other regions of the country, the report says that the most significant barrier that young adults working in London face to achieving these aims is extremely unaffordable housing, the cost of which can often largely offset the earnings premium they get from being based in London.
Britain, it adds,
needs to diversify its economy away from London and the South East if it wants to offer more graduate jobs in areas where there is already affordable housing.
