The comparison site ssessed the quality of life in the UK’s 12 largest cities and how it has been impacted over the past year by the effects of the recession.

The report looked at a range of factors including: property market activity; rental costs; salary levels; disposable income growth; cost of living; unemployment rates and life satisfaction.

These factors, taken from existing sources such as house price trackers and ONS statistics, were weighted depending on the importance of each to the quality of living and each city given an overall score.

Bristol came away as the clear winner.

The average employee salary there is £22,293 – above the UK average of £21,473, and the third highest out of the 12 largest UK cities.

It also has the highest disposable income growth and one of the lowest unemployment rates of 8%.

In second place is Edinburgh. It has the second highest average salary of £24,628 and the lowest unemployment rate out of all cities (6.7%).

This compares with an unemployment rate of 7.8% across Scotland and 11.5% in Glasgow.

Unsurprisingly, those in London have the highest salaries, £30,471 on average, and house prices in the capital have outperformed the rest of the country over the past year.

Properties in London have increased by an average of 10% year-on-year, but the capital only came seventh overall in the Quality of Living Index due to a combination of factors including a lower-than average score for life satisfaction (7.3 versus the UK average of 7.4), and higher than average rents (£131 a week) and mortgage payments (on average £179 per week).

London rents are the highest of the 12 largest cities and almost double the national average of £77 a week.

Bradford came away as the hardest place to make a living and with the lowest quality of life.

Clare Francis of MoneySupermarket.com said: “The UK’s quality of living has suffered in recent years and, as a result, many households are struggling to make ends meet each month. In many ways this is understandable given salary increases haven’t kept up with rising living costs – and millions of people haven’t seen their pay rise at all for the last few years.

“For most people, moving home or changing jobs to improve your quality of living isn’t possible. However, there are some key actions households can take today to help free up some extra cash and put some money back into their pocket to make their quality of life just that little bit better.”

Quality of Living UK Index

 Source: Opinium Research 2013

Five things households can do today to improve their finances for a better quality of living:

1. Take control of your finances. UK households need to take control of their finances, and fight back against the rising cost of living. Making sure you money is working as hard as it can for you by switching to the most competitive deals can help free up spare cash. Switching to cheaper deals can free up vital cash at a time when most people really need it. By making sure you aren’t paying more than you need to for products and services and review any regular outgoings such as gym memberships and subscriptions could save you hundreds of pounds over a year.

2. Switch Energy Providers. There are 12.6 million households paying their provider’s standard gas and electricity prices and collectively they’re paying £2 billion a year more than they need to for their energy. SSE has already announced its prices will rise next month and other providers are expected to follow suit, so the time to act is now. By moving onto a fixed online deal, these people could save around £200 on the cost of their annual bill and also protect themselves from more price increases for at least 12 months.

3. Consolidate existing debts. Anyone with existing debts should look to switch to a cheaper credit card or personal loan in order to reduce the amount of interest being charged. For example, switching a £2,500 debt to a zero per cent balance transfer credit card from a card with an industry average APR of 18.9% would save over £300 in interest over twelve months.

4. Reduce your motoring costs. We can’t control the price of fuel, but there are ways to bring the cost of motoring down. Driving more efficiently and making sure your tyre pressures are correct and excess weight is reduced can help lower motoring costs. If you commute to work, consider car sharing and share the costs between you. Be savvier at the petrol pump and calculate whether it is worth driving the extra distance for cheaper fuel, or whether it will actually end up costing more.

5. Switch your mortgage. For many UK households, a mortgage is a largest monthly bill. Making sure you are on the cheapest deal can save you a considerable amount of money over the term. For example, switching a £100,000 mortgage from an average standard variable rate of 4.32% to the market leading 2-year fixed rate mortgage from HSBC at 1.49% would save £1,509 over the period of the deal, which includes the £1,999 fee.