Northern cities can succeed sustainably

Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been crowned Britain’s most sustainable city – the first time anywhere in the north of England has broken into the top three of the annual index.Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been crowned Britain’s most sustainable city – the first time anywhere in the north of England has broken into the top three of the annual index.

Nudging previous winners Bristol and Brighton into second and third place respectively, it tops the environmental table and comes fourth for both quality of life and future-proofing. Newcastle rose from fourth place last year – thanks in part to its sustainable community strategy for 2008-2011, which stipulated that the city’s economic growth would not be achieved ‘at the expense of the environment’.

Forum for the Future’s annual Sustainable cities index tracks progress on sustainability in Britain’s 20 largest cities - highlighting environmental performance, quality of life and readiness for future challenges. The Forum measures 13 indicators, chosen to reflect areas in which local authorities have the power to enhance the sustainability of their city.

Bristol tops the quality of life table and ranks third on future-proofing. It has the highest scores for recycling and household waste collections, and comes second on employment and transport.

Hull is a non-mover at the bottom spot but the biggest change is Plymouth which dropped outside the top ten from third in 2008. Cardiff slipped back five spaces and Edinburgh and Glasgow have both dropped one spot each.

The top 20 overall city rankings are:

1 Newcastle

2 Bristol

3 Brighton and Hove

4 Leicester

5 London

6 Leeds

7 Edinburgh

8 Nottingham

9 Sheffield

10 Cardiff

11 Coventry

12 Plymouth

13 Sunderland

14 Manchester

15 Liverpool

16 Bradford

17 Birmingham

18 Wolverhampton

19 Glasgow

20 Hull

So that is one good reason to attend the 2010 Institute of Economic Development conference in Hull.