Looking ahead to Q4 2022
As the growth of transport and storage eases, Oxford and Cambridge are forecast to be among the cities with the highest projected GVA growth at the end of 2022, at 3.3% each on a year-on-year basis.
The two university cities are also expected to show some of the highest annual growth in employment, at 3.2% in Oxford and 2.5% in Cambridge. The two local economies are dominated by the universities and the surrounding array of services and research-based firms. Milton Keynes, located between Oxford and Cambridge, is also set to perform well in Q4 2022, with GVA increasing by 3.3% compared to a year earlier.
In the South East, GVA’s expected to grow by 3.4% year-on-year in the service-based economy of Reading. This further suggests that cities with a strong service sector such as Reading, where Microsoft has based its UK headquarters, or Oxford and Cambridge are likely to have higher growth rates.
After showing increasing employment in Q4 2021, Solihull’s GVA is expected to increase by 3.1% in the year to Q4 2022. A potential driver of this growth is the easing of the current supply shortages hampering the global automobile industry. Another factor that might be contributing to Solihull’s higher GVA is the influx of employed people in 2021, who may contribute more to the local economy through increased consumption.
