They've measured towns and cities across the UK over the past ten years and how they've fared on a variety of indicators such as job growth, how many people are actually in work, wages growth and salary levels overall.

What's interesting is that as well as the usual suspects in the south east, half of the UK's most improved cities, in terms of employment growth, are in the north, including Derby, Doncaster and Sunderland, in 4th, 6th and 7th place.  However for four of these five northern cities employment rates are still considerably below the national average.  Sunderland ranks almost bottom with 31% of the city's working age population not in employment compared 26%, nationally.

The report highlights the inequalities within as well as between UK cities up and down the country.  Manchester, Birmingham and London each appeared in the report's ranking of the ten most unequal urban areas, measured in terms of wealth and deprivation. Across the city regions, the disparities are stark:

Greater Manchester: 35% of Manchester's working-age population are not employed, compared to 20% in Stockport.

Greater Birmingham: In Birmingham 37% of the working age population are not in employment, compared to 21% in neighbouring Solihull.

Greater London: 47% of Tower Hamlet's working-age residents are not in employment, compared to over 22% in Sutton.

While these city centres have been physically transformed and regenerated, less than a mile from Manchester's new Piccadilly Station and London's Canary Wharf, entrenched pockets of worklessness and underperforming housing markets remain.

It shows we need to move beyond physical city centre redevelopment towards the next wave of regeneration by skilling up workless residents in the surrounding areas and by investing in transport networks, linking people to jobs.