The ten best UK towns and cities to work in

Slough has been named the best place to work in the UK, beating more glamorous rivals to take top spot for the second year in a row.

The Berkshire town made famous by The Office was awarded the top spot in a list of the best towns and cities for employees across the nation, compiled by job search website Glassdoor.

Based on factors including the ease of acquiring a job, the cost of living and overall job satisfaction, Slough came out on top due to the high number of available vacancies and the decent average salaries, weighted against housing and living costs in the area.

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“It is also home to a huge range of employers,” says Amanda Stansell, economic research analyst at Glassdoor, and “with plans now agreed for Heathrow’s third runway and the new Crossrail in 2019, its growth potential is very positive”.

Slough is one of the biggest centres for business outside London but has received “an onslaught of mockery in the past” says The Independent, most notably by Ricky Gervais’s David Brent in The Office and in a 1937 poem by poet laureate John Betjeman, which read: “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now.”

A petition was even launched in 2016 to rename Slough in a bid to salvage its reputation, yet it still beat out other more glamourous rivals to top the list for the second consecutive year.

Gloucester came in second, with Cambridge, Reading and Guildford making up the rest of the top five, while the likes of London, Glasgow and Cardiff failed to even make the top 25.

The top ten towns and cities to work in:

1. Slough
2. Gloucester
3. Cambridge
4. Reading
5. Guildford
6. Stoke-on-Trent
7. Manchester
8. Derby
9. Bolton
10. Chelmsford