Does Birmingham need better public transport? That’s the question after it finished just ninth in a list of the best-connected cities outside London.

The analysis is based on new government figures showing how quickly people living in different parts of England can get to key services by using public transport or walking.

Those key services include primary schools, secondary schools, GP surgeries, hospitals, and food shops.

Manchester finished top of the list - followed by Leicester, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Coventry, and Brighton.

Bristol and Salford were next - with Birmingham just squeezing into the top 10 ahead of Gateshead.

Commuters walk through the new £750million Birmingham New Street Station as it gets its first real test this morning.
Commuters walk through the new £750million Birmingham New Street Station as it gets its first real test this morning.

That put it ahead of the likes of Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle.

The data shows 97 per cent of primary-school age children in Birmingham are within 15 minutes’ public transport journey, or walk, of a primary school.

Some 65 per cent of secondary-age children are within 15 minutes of a secondary school, while 94 per cent of all residents are within 15 minutes of a GP surgery, five per cent within 15 minutes of a hospital, and 97 per cent within 15 minutes of a food shop.

In Canterbury - the city that finished bottom of the list - only 77 per cent are that well connected to a primary school, 17 per cent to a secondary school, 69 per cent to a GP surgery, two per cent to a hospital, and 87 per cent to a food shop.

Manchester, however, out-performed Birmingham in all categories except secondary schools.

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Part of the reason for that is geographical. Cities that do better in the analysis don’t just have better public transport - they also tend to have more facilities to begin with. More densely-packed cities do better than sprawling, lightly-populated ones, too.

That gives Manchester - which has a relatively small city “core” - an advantage.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the figures showed individual London boroughs performed even better than Manchester.

At the very top of the list was Hammersmith and Fulham.

Some 100 per cent of people there with young children are 15 minutes from a primary school, 92 per cent with older children are 15 minutes from a secondary school, 100 per cent of all residents are 15 minutes from a GP, 25 per cent are 15 minutes from a hospital, and 100 per cent are 15 minutes from a food shop.

The worst-connected place in England - including all local authorities, and not just cities - is Ryedale in North Yorkshire.

Only 63 per cent of people with children are 15 minutes from a primary school and 15 per cent from a secondary school.

Fewer than half - just 47 per cent - are 15 minutes from a GP, 56 per cent from a food shop - and zero per cent from a hospital.

The league table was compiled by ranking each place in terms of its performance in each of the individual categories: primary schools, secondary schools, GPs, hospitals and food shops.

Those ranks were than added together to make an overall score - with that total determining each town and city’s place in the table.

Rank // City

1 // Manchester
2 // Leicester
3 // Portsmouth
4 // Liverpool
5 // Coventry
6 // Brighton and Hove
7 // Bristol
8 // Salford
9 // Birmingham
10 // Gateshead
11 // Southampton
12 // Nottingham
13 // Hull
14 // Sunderland
15 // Wolverhampton
16 // Newcastle
17 // Sheffield
18 // Bradford
19 // Exeter
20 // Plymouth
21 // Preston
22 // Derby
23 // Lincoln
24 // Oxford
25 // Leeds
26 // Bournemouth
27 // Cambridge
28 // York
29 // Stoke-on-Trent
30 // Norwich
31 // Gloucester
32 // Lancaster
33 // Carlisle
34 // Canterbury