Mind the growth gap: The UK's 10 best and 10 worst performing cities

The report highlighted a north-south divide with seven of the 10 cities with the biggest declines in job numbers in the north of England

Milton Keynes has seen the highest growth in jobs out of the biggest 64 towns and cities in the UK over the last decade, while Gloucester recorded the biggest fall, according to new figures.

The Centre for Cities’ 2015 Cities Outlook reported on Monday that Milton Keynes saw its number of jobs increase by 18.2 per cent between 2004 and 2013, followed by London on 17.1 per cent.

Gloucester, on the other hand, saw a fall of 12.6 per cent, with the second worst decline - 12.2 per cent - in Rochdale.

Milton Keynes is home to the UK headquarters of a string of major firms including Argos, Domino’s Pizza, Marshall Amplification, Mercedes-Benz, Suzuki, Volkswagen AG and Yamaha Kemble. The Buckinghamshire town’s population also rose by 16.5 per cent over period. In contrast, Sunderland’s population fell by 1.4 per cent.

However London’s jobs record was far more important to the UK economy as a whole as it added 769,500 jobs over the period, compared to 24,400 in Milton Keynes.

The report highlighted a north-south divide with seven of the 10 cities with the biggest declines in job numbers in the north of England while the best performing places were mostly in the south.