We are a genuine global contender for investors

AHAPPY New Year to you all and I wish you all the very best for 2023. As we continue our recovery from the impacts of the global pandemic while facing the consequences of a UK in recession, the next 12 months will be hugely challenging for the city, the council and our public services. But also for businesses and ordinary Glaswegians coping with the hardships and demands of the cost- of- living and energy crises.

Amid these deep and overlapping challenges, it is all the more important that we recognise and grasp positivity about our city when it emerges. Last week, when Glasgow was ranked in the Top 100 of the world’s cities, was such an instance.

Surveys naming Glasgow as the best or the worst of something or other are commonplace. We take the accolades along with the criticism, knowing another will be along shortly or it will be somewhere else next week.

The World’s Best Cities ranking is an entirely different proposition. Rather than being designed to generate a quick headline, the report is rigorous, complex and methodical. Compiled by global specialists Resonance, it takes into account the quality of a city’s natural and built environment, its key institutions, attractions and infrastructure ( such as airports, museums and university rankings), and the arts, cultural and entertainment scenes.

It also looks at the population diversity of a city, the number of major companies based there, employment and income rates and equalities, and references, recommendations and stories shared online.

In a Top 100 dominated by A- list global capitals and major North American cities, Glasgow came in at 92, one of only four UK cities to make the cut. Our position in the table also saw us surrounded by global peers such as Bilbao, Brisbane, Lyon, Gothenburg, Auckland and Ottawa.

Rated by finance and media giant Bloomberg as “the most comprehensive ranking on the planet”, Best Cities is used to help inform those major investment decisions which deliver hundreds of millions of jobs annually. Major investors are making choices based on the availability of skills, workforces and pipelines of talent, liveability and, critically, affordability. The Best Cities rankings confirms Glasgow as a genuine global contender, one ready to lure investors who are looking elsewhere than overpriced capital cities.

International recognition like this is hugely important, both within the context of current challenges and the fundamental shifts happening in economies here in Glasgow and across the world.

And the specific Glasgow qualities singled out in the survey will strike a real chord with many Glaswegians: Resonance describes us as a city of “working class values” whose transformation has been driven by the strength of our people, and highlights Glasgow’s commitment to ensuring all of our citizens have the opportunity to share in the city’s successes. Glasgow’s commitment in recent years to developing the skills and qualifications of residents, and our capacity to attract and retain talent, is now recognised as a selling point to international investors. Our city’s investment in our people has the potential to reap even bigger rewards.

Glasgow’s challenges can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially when they’re made worse by conditions beyond our control. The toughest of times make it even more important that we continually work to improve people’ s lives – and also to recognise and celebrate that a lot of what Glasgow’s already got is actually pretty great.