The report reveals that the Surrey town has replaced Cambridge as the destination best placed to support economic expansion over the next 12 months.

Visit the 'UK Vitality Index' microsite.

The ‘UK Vitality Index’ assesses the UK’s largest towns and cities outside London to provide a health check of their local economies and identify which are most robust, are best positioned to support growth and will provide the greatest opportunities for businesses to expand.  The results are based on the analysis of 20 datasets, with each location ranked within six separate categories: most productive, fastest growing, most entrepreneurial, best educated, greenest and most affluent.

Overall, the top 10 towns and cities in the 2015 UK Vitality Index are:

1. Guildford
2. Cambridge
3. Brighton
4. Reading
5. Warwick
6. St Albans
7. Milton Keynes
8. Oxford
9. Edinburgh
10. York

Oxford and York are both new entries into the top ten this year, on the back of greater corporate investment and an increase in the number of recent business start-ups respectively.

The report also identifies Manchester, Northampton and Derby as the most significant improvers over the past 12 months.