Leeds

Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. In 2011, the City of Leeds had an estimated population of 757,700 making it the third-largest city in the UK.

Student City

Leeds is served by five universities, and has one of the largest student populations in the country with over 250,000 students and has the country’s fourth largest urban economy after London.

Leeds is the largest legal centre in the UK and in 2011 its financial and insurance services industry was worth £2.1 billion, the 5^th largest in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. It is the leading UK city for telephone delivered banking and related financial services, with over 30 call centres employing around 20,000 people.

Economic Development

Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries.

Its assigned role in the Leeds City Region partnership recognises the city’s importance to regional economic development, and the second phase of High Speed 2 plans to connect Leeds to London via East Midlands Hub and Sheffield Meadowhall.

Up and coming

In January 2011, Leeds was named as one of five ‘cities to watch’ in a report published by Centre for Cities. The report shows that the average resident in Leeds earns £471 per week, seventeenth nationally and 30.9% of Leeds residents had NVQ4+ high level qualifications, fifteenth nationally.

Employment in Leeds was 68.8% in the period June 2012 to June 2013, which was lower than the national average, whilst unemployment was higher than the national average at 9.6% over the same time period.

It also shows that Leeds will be the least affected major city by welfare cuts in 2014/2015, with welfare cuts of -£125 per capita predicted, compared to -£192 in Liverpool and -£175 in Glasgow. Leeds is overall less deprived than other large UK cities and average income is above regional averages.

- Leeds