Britain’s travel-to-work areas sorted two ways: by economic function (from global financial capitals to coastal and post-industrial towns) and by population trajectory (growing, stable, or declining). Each cell of the grid is the enquiry-weighted average of a chosen search-flow index for the areas of that type, before (2016–2019), during (2020–2021), and after (2022–2025) the pandemic. Search signals interest rather than a completed move, and England is the reliable canvas.
The three periods sit side by side as columns, the sale and rental markets as two stacked bands, all on one colour scale. Choose an index once and it applies throughout. The Levels view shows each period’s state; the Change view replaces the periods with the two step changes (during minus before, after minus during) on a diverging scale, so a cell that moved lights up (teal for a rise, terracotta for a fall) and a cell that held steady stays pale. Net-flow runs from −1 to +1 and marks whether more search arrives than departs; the leaving rate, openness, reach, and concentration describe how far and how widely residents look. The clearest pattern is an affordability gradient in the sale market that the rental market does not share: growing capitals and core cities are sale sources yet rental sinks, while declining core cities lose demand under both tenures.
How the types are defined
Areas are sorted on external criteria, their occupation and industry mix together with a few fixed anchors, rather than on the search data itself, so the demand patterns are not built into the categories.
The eight economic-function classes are:
- Global financial capital: London.
- Devolved or administrative capital: the seats of national and devolved government. Areas: Cardiff, Edinburgh.
- Regenerating core city: the large regional cities of the Core Cities group. Areas: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Dundee, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield.
- Knowledge and professional-service hub: areas in the top third for professional and managerial employment. Areas: Andover, Ashford, Basingstoke, Bath, Bedford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chester, Colchester, Crawley, Crewe, Evesham, Exeter, Gloucester, Grantham, Guildford and Aldershot, Halifax, Harrogate, High Wycombe and Aylesbury, Huntingdon, Kingsbridge and Dartmouth, Leamington Spa, Luton, Milton Keynes, Newbury, Norwich, Oxford, Reading, Slough and Heathrow, Southampton, Stafford, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City, Trowbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Worcester and Kidderminster, York.
- Diversified medium-sized town: mid-sized towns with a mixed employment base and no single dominant sector. Areas: Aberystwyth, Barnstaple, Barrow-in-Furness, Birkenhead, Blyth and Ashington, Bridgend, Bury St Edmunds, Chesterfield, Chichester and Bognor Regis, Cinderford and Ross-on-Wye, Colwyn Bay, Darlington, Dorchester and Weymouth, Folkestone and Dover, Ipswich, Lancaster and Morecambe, Lincoln, Medway, Newport, Northampton, Portsmouth, Preston, Redruth and Truro, Rhyl, Shrewsbury, Southend, Swansea, Swindon, Warrington and Wigan, Yeovil.
- Manufacturing and post-industrial town: areas in the top third for manufacturing employment. Areas: Bangor and Holyhead, Barnsley, Bideford, Blackburn, Boston, Bradford, Burnley, Burton upon Trent, Carlisle, Coventry, Cromer and Sheringham, Derby, Doncaster, Dudley, Durham and Bishop Auckland, Grimsby, Haverfordwest and Milford Haven, Hereford, Huddersfield, Hull, Kettering and Wellingborough, King’s Lynn, Leicester, Llanelli, Mansfield, Margate and Ramsgate, Merthyr Tydfil, Middlesbrough and Stockton, Newtown and Welshpool, Peterborough, Plymouth, Scunthorpe, Skegness and Louth, Spalding, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Telford, Thetford and Mildenhall, Torquay and Paignton, Wakefield and Castleford, Wisbech, Wolverhampton and Walsall, Worksop and Retford, Wrexham.
- Coastal, amenity and retirement: seaside and amenity areas from the national coastal-towns classification. Areas: Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Clacton, Eastbourne, Great Yarmouth, Hartlepool, Hastings, Isle of Wight, Penzance, Weston-super-Mare, Worthing.
- Mixed or smaller towns: smaller areas without a single defining function. Areas: Ayr, Dumbarton and Helensburgh, Dumfries, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, Elgin, Falkirk and Stirling, Galashiels and Peebles, Greenock, Inverness, Kilmarnock and Irvine, Livingston, Motherwell and Airdrie, Orkney Islands, Perth, Shetland Islands, Western Isles.
Population trajectory sorts the same areas into thirds by resident-population change between 2011 and 2024:
- Growing: the fastest-growing third, roughly ten per cent or more over the period.
- Stable: the middle third.
- Declining: the slowest-growing third, roughly six per cent or less.