First introduced and published in 2000, this UK Competitiveness Index (UKCI) represents the 2019 edition of the report. The UKCI provides a benchmarking of the competitiveness of the UK’s localities2 , and it has been designed to be an integrated measure of competitiveness focusing on both the development and sustainability of businesses and the economic welfare of individuals. In this respect, competitiveness is considered to consist of the capability of an economy to attract and maintain firms with stable or rising market shares in an activity, while maintaining stable or increasing standards of living for those who participate in it.
The above definition makes clear that competitiveness is not a zero-sum game, and does not rely on the shifting of a finite amount of resources from one place to another. Competitiveness involves the upgrading and economic development of all places together, rather than the improvement of one place at the expense of another. However, competitiveness does involve balancing the different types of advantages that one place may hold over another, i.e. the range of differing strengths that the socio-economic environment affords to a particular place compared to elsewhere.
This report publishes competitiveness indices that incorporate the most up-to-date data available in 2019, as well as an updated version of the indices presented in the 2016 report, which provides a means of comparison and an examination of the UK’s changing competitiveness landscape. In light of Brexit, published before the UK’s departure from the EU, it will also act as a future benchmark for the performance of UK localities.
The key findings of the 2019 UKCI are analysed and outlined in the following sections. For those readers interested in the score and rank of a particular locality or localities they may wish to refer directly to Appendix 2, which provides a ranked order list of all localities, and/or Appendix 3, which ranks localities within their relevant regional grouping
