Only 12 months ago Preston was named the best city to live and work in the north-west of England… this is above Manchester and Liverpool! Preston was awarded city status in 2002 and is now the third largest city in the North West.

‘The city ranked 19th overall in the 2016 Good Growth for Cities index, which measures the performance of 42 UK cities against 10 categories including jobs, income, work-life balance, transport, skills, environment and the house price to earnings ratio.’

The article also mentioned that Preston scored partially high for jobs and business start-ups. Read full The Guardian article here >  Preston Named Best City

Source: Preston City Centre by Sonia Bashir 

1. Regeneration & Business Economy

One of the key reasons for Preston moving up the leaderboard is because of the ‘Preston and Lancashire City Deal’ is a £435m of new investment to transform the area creating thousands of new homes, jobs and huge improvements to the transport infrastructure. The Preston and Lancashire City Deal Has provided a huge boost to the local economy, which is expected to grow by £1 billion over the next ten years. Find out more here > Preston and Lancashire City Deal

2. Housing

The average house price is significantly lower in the North starting at around £145,000 with London prices averaging £600,000. New build housing is continually being developed right across Preston with a good selection of older properties available too. (Figures, Rightmove, 2016).

3. Transport

Preston is less than an hour’s drive from the beautiful countryside of The Lakes District. The M6 motorway provides a direct route to the north and south and by train you can be in London in two hours and Glasgow in two hours 20 minutes.

If 3 reasons aren’t good enough here are 10 more… 10 reasons it is actually pretty fantastic to live and work in Preston.