According to a report from a ‘think tank’ called The Centre for Cities (www.centreforcities.org), Aberdeen and Edinburgh are among the top 10 UK cities for their high wages and low-welfare payments ratio. They are in fourth and eighth place respectively; no Scottish cities are in the top 10 “low-wage, high-welfare economies”.

The 2016 report, described as ‘a health check’ for the UK’s 63 largest cities, focuses on the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s vow to “build a higher-wage, lower-welfare economy”.

It says that nearly a million new jobs have been created in cities since 2010, but the average salary has fallen by £1,300. The report adds that welfare spending has risen by 4% since 2010 in high-wage places like Milton Keynes and Cambridge, but it has fallen in low-wage cities like Liverpool and Glasgow.