Preston named fifth best UK city for remote workers, according to new study

To get to the bottom of which cities truly work for remote workers, researchers at  RemotePeople, an international remote recruitment agency, crunched the numbers for 60 UK cities. The team examined nine critical factors, including internet speeds (both upload and download), coworking space availability, remote job listings, cost of living, safety, and access to parks and play areas. They even looked at average data usage and how many residents are already working from home.

Each city was scored out of 100 for each factor, weighted according to importance (with internet speeds taking top priority), to form an overall ‘remote work friendliness’ score. The data was sourced from OFCOM, ONS, LinkedIn, Coworker, and Numbeo.

Preston ranks fifth, and it's all about that remote work hustle. An impressive 46% of residents have recently worked from home, the highest in the country. That’s nearly half the population skipping the commute. It also fares well in coworking availability, with 9.49 spaces per 100K people.

But it’s not all good news. Upload speeds are sluggish (21.3 Mbps), and safety is a concern – its index score of 28.25 is the second-lowest in the study. Still, with a low cost of living (£674) and strong remote job opportunities (6,973 listings), Preston proves you can’t judge a city by its broadband alone.

Southampton comes in 1st with the fastest internet speeds by a long shot, and Lancaster is 2nd with strong upload speeds and excellent job listings. Exeter, in 3rd place, brings job opportunities and coworking options. Stoke-on-Trent, 4th, leads on upload speed and has a strong remote work culture (37%).

In 6th, St Albans boasts the most remote jobs and one of the highest safety scores. Lincoln ranks 7th and blends job access with affordability. Nottingham, in 8th, stands out for coworking space availability. Norwich, 9th, delivers on safety and green space, and Oxford, in 10th, brings strong infrastructure and good access to parks—despite the high cost of living.

While these 10 cities lead the pack, not all came out looking rosy. London surprisingly ranked bottom overall – perhaps a reminder that sky-high rents and packed Tube stations don’t pair well with remote working dreams. Bradford, Chichester, Brighton and Hove, and Sheffield also found themselves at the lower end.

Elsewhere, some major players fell just short of the top 10. Manchester landed in 13th place, Bristol 16th, Leeds 17th, Liverpool 22nd, Cambridge 24th, Edinburgh 25th – and Birmingham lagged behind in 43rd.

It seems the best city for working from home isn’t always the one with the biggest skyline. Sometimes, it’s about balance – and a good internet connection, of course.

The top 10 list of the best UK cities for remote workers in the  study: