Live & Work
What could I earn?What would it cost me to live?
Two questions decide most moves, and most websites answer neither honestly. Official earnings and advertised salaries are kept apart here, the cost baseline is one you can argue with, and take-home is built from published tax thresholds.
Castlefield
Manchester
Nigel Thompson / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Food market
United Kingdom
Alan Stanton / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Rail
United Kingdom
Anthony Parkes / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Pubs
United Kingdom
Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
Sport
United Kingdom
Richard Humphrey / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0Photography from the governed UKIZ media registry — every frame licensed, credited and located.
Built from evidence. Kept current. Every figure here names its source, the period it describes and the date we last checked it.
Official earnings and advertised salaries are different things and are never mixed here. Official pay is measured across everyone doing the work. An advertised range is what one employer chose to publish for one role.
UKIZ does not rank places. These figures are put side by side so you can weigh them yourself against what you want from a life.
Start here
Start with Manchester
Manchester's case is not that it pays the most. It is that the gap between what you earn and what you spend is wider here than in most cities with this much going on.
Manchester carries the complete picture — cost basket, occupation bands and a take-home calculator. Everywhere else carries median pay and rent, recorded against the same sources.
Everywhere else
Reference figures across Britain
Manchester
Full picture
- Median pay
- £35,000
- Average rent
- £1,250/mo
London
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £47,500
- Average rent
- £2,200/mo
Cambridge
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £40,000
- Average rent
- £1,600/mo
Bristol
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £38,000
- Average rent
- £1,650/mo
Glasgow
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £35,500
- Average rent
- £1,050/mo
Edinburgh
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £40,000
- Average rent
- £1,500/mo
Leeds
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £34,500
- Average rent
- £1,100/mo
Birmingham
Pay and rent
- Median pay
- £33,500
- Average rent
- £1,050/mo
Median pay is everybody working in that local authority, not people in innovation roles, and average rent covers every property type. Both are rounded. They are here for scale, not precision.
Method
How a field becomes a salary
Official earnings are published by occupation, not by industry. UKIZ maps each Community to SOC 2020 occupations and says which ones. The mapping is our judgement, and it is visible so you can disagree with it.
Occupation codes are ONS's Standard Occupational Classification 2020. 16 of UKIZ's Communities have a mapping today.
Artificial Intelligence
Software, data and machine learning roles
- 2133 IT specialist managers · adjacent
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals
- 2136 Web design and development professionals · adjacent
- 2433 Actuaries, economists and statisticians
- 2137 Data analysts
SOC 2020 has no unit group for machine learning specifically. AI pay is read through software development and data occupations, which understates the top of the market and overstates the bottom.
Robotics & Autonomous Systems
Mechanical, control, electronics and software engineering roles
- 2122 Mechanical engineers
- 2123 Electrical engineers
- 2124 Electronics engineers
- 2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals · adjacent
Robotics is not a SOC category. Reading it through engineering unit groups mixes robotics work with the much larger general engineering labour market.
Life Sciences
Biological science, laboratory and clinical research roles
- 2111 Chemical scientists · adjacent
- 2112 Biological scientists
- 2113 Biochemists and biomedical scientists
- 3111 Laboratory technicians
- 2119 Natural and social science professionals n.e.c. · adjacent
Academic research posts and commercial biotech sit in the same unit groups but pay very differently. Treat the median as a blend, not a typical offer.
Space
Aerospace, electronics and systems engineering roles
- 2121 Civil engineers · adjacent
- 2124 Electronics engineers
- 2127 Production and process engineers · adjacent
- 2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified
- 2114 Physical scientists
Space is a small employer in most places. Occupation medians describe engineering, not the space sector.
Advanced Manufacturing
Production, process and manufacturing engineering roles
- 2122 Mechanical engineers
- 2127 Production and process engineers
- 2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified
- 3113 Engineering technicians
- 1121 Production managers and directors in manufacturing · adjacent
Advanced Materials
Materials, chemical and physical science roles
- 2111 Chemical scientists
- 2114 Physical scientists
- 2127 Production and process engineers · adjacent
- 3111 Laboratory technicians
Materials science has no dedicated unit group; it is read through chemical and physical science.
Clean Energy
Energy, electrical and civil engineering roles
- 2121 Civil engineers
- 2123 Electrical engineers
- 2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified
- 2150 Conservation and environment professionals · adjacent
Semiconductors
Electronics, physics and process engineering roles
- 2124 Electronics engineers
- 2114 Physical scientists
- 2127 Production and process engineers
A small, highly specialised labour market. Occupation medians will not capture compound semiconductor or photonics pay.
Quantum Technologies
Physics, electronics and research software roles
- 2114 Physical scientists
- 2124 Electronics engineers · adjacent
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals · adjacent
Too few people work in quantum for official statistics to describe it. Any figure shown is physics and engineering pay, not quantum pay.
Engineering Biology
Biological science, bioprocess and laboratory roles
- 2112 Biological scientists
- 2113 Biochemists and biomedical scientists
- 2127 Production and process engineers · adjacent
- 3111 Laboratory technicians
Digital Technologies
Software, IT and data roles
- 2133 IT specialist managers · adjacent
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals
- 2135 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
- 2136 Web design and development professionals
- 2137 Data analysts
Creative Industries
Design, media production and creative technology roles
- 3416 Arts officers, producers and directors
- 3417 Photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators
- 2137 Data analysts · adjacent
- 2136 Web design and development professionals · adjacent
Creative work has unusually high self-employment and freelance rates. Employee earnings statistics describe only part of the market.
Financial Technology
Software, data and finance professional roles
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals
- 2135 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
- 2421 Chartered and certified accountants · adjacent
- 2433 Actuaries, economists and statisticians · adjacent
Defence & Security
Engineering, electronics and cyber security roles
- 2124 Electronics engineers
- 2129 Engineering professionals not elsewhere classified
- 2139 Information technology professionals n.e.c.
Cleared roles pay differently from the wider engineering market and are not separately measured.
Mobility & Transport Technology
Automotive, electrical and software engineering roles
- 2122 Mechanical engineers
- 2123 Electrical engineers
- 2134 Programmers and software development professionals · adjacent
- 3113 Engineering technicians
AgriTech & FoodTech
Biological science, process engineering and agricultural roles
- 2112 Biological scientists
- 2127 Production and process engineers
- 5111 Farmers · adjacent
The gap between research roles and production roles in this field is unusually wide.
Provenance
Where every figure comes from
Office for National Statistics
Median and percentile gross pay by local authority and by SOC 2020 occupation.
Recorded by hand · Nomis API (planned) · Open Government Licence v3.0
Occupation pay is suppressed at local authority level where the sample is too small, so many fields can only be read regionally.
Office for National Statistics
Average monthly private rent by local authority and by bedroom count.
Recorded by hand · Open Government Licence v3.0
Published at local authority level. It cannot describe a single neighbourhood or a city centre postcode.
HM Land Registry
Average house prices by local authority and property type.
Recorded by hand · Land Registry Linked Data API (planned) · Open Government Licence v3.0
The billing local authority
Annual council tax by band for the place, including precepts.
Recorded by hand · Published by each authority
Set annually in March and varies by parish precept within a single authority.
Ofgem
Typical annual domestic energy cost used as the utilities baseline.
Recorded by hand · Open Government Licence v3.0
The cap describes a typical household on a standard variable tariff. It is not a bill and it does not apply in Northern Ireland.
The local transport authority or operator
Season and monthly travel costs for the place.
Recorded by hand · Published by each operator
HMRC and the Scottish Government
Every threshold used by the take-home calculator.
Recorded by hand · Open Government Licence v3.0
Scottish bands are set annually and are not covered by the UK threshold freeze.
Office for National Statistics
Household spend on food, household goods and personal spending, used for the non-housing basket.
Recorded by hand · Open Government Licence v3.0
Published nationally and regionally, not by city. UKIZ uses it as a national baseline and says so.
Adzuna
What employers are currently advertising, kept strictly separate from official earnings.
Automated · Adzuna Jobs API · Commercial API terms — display with link-back, no republication of ad bodies
Advertised salary is what an employer chose to publish, on the roles that carry a figure at all. It is not what people are paid.
HESA / Jisc
Graduate salaries and destinations by subject and provider.
Recorded by hand · HESA terms of use
Figures marked as recorded by hand were read from the named publication by UKIZ and rounded. The automated refresh for those sources is specified but not yet running, so treat them as indicative of scale rather than exact.
Tax
The thresholds behind the calculator
Income tax personal allowance · 2026/27
Frozen at £12,570 until April 2028 under the policy announced at Autumn Budget 2024.
HMRC — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances · checked 2026-08-16 · review by 2027-04-06
Income tax bands — England, Wales and Northern Ireland · 2026/27
Band thresholds are frozen until April 2028. The higher rate starts at £50,270 of gross income and the additional rate at £125,140.
HMRC — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances · checked 2026-08-16 · review by 2027-04-06
Income tax bands — Scotland · 2025/26Awaiting current year
Scottish bands are set each year in the Scottish Budget and are not covered by the UK freeze. UKIZ is showing the most recent bands it has verified; treat Scottish take-home as indicative until the current year is confirmed.
Scottish Government — Scottish Income Tax rates and bands · checked 2026-08-16 · review by 2026-12-31
National Insurance — Class 1 employee rates · 2026/27
National Insurance is not devolved: the same rates apply across the UK.
HMRC — National Insurance rates and categories · checked 2026-08-16 · review by 2027-04-06
Student loan repayment thresholds · 2025/26Awaiting current year
Thresholds are uprated annually and announced separately from the Budget. Shown from the most recent year UKIZ has verified.
GOV.UK — Repaying your student loan · checked 2026-08-16 · review by 2026-12-31
Not yet
What Live & Work does not do
- No job board. When vacancy data arrives, applications will happen on the employer's own site.
- No property listings, no mortgage advice, no financial advice of any kind.
- No "best city" ranking. The figures sit side by side and you decide.
- No neighbourhood-level costs. Official rent data stops at the local authority boundary.