THERE is good news of a sort in research carried out by an accountancy firm into the likely effects of the economic downturn on 50 UK towns and cities.

Clever folk at UHY Hacker Young have looked at the numbers of people employed in the sectors most at risk — financial services and construction — and concluded that Bolton comes way down the vulnerability list at number 35.

London (35.5 per cent) is inevitably number one in this gloomy league table, ahead of Norwich (35 per cent) and Edinburgh (34.8 per cent).

Blackpool, with just 13.1 per cent of its workers building things or doing sums, is number 50 and can take some comfort in its comparative lack of exposure to the chill wind of the credit freeze According to these statistics, Bolton has 104,400 employees working in all sectors and 24,200 of them earn their crust in construction or financial services.

This works out at 23.2 per cent of the total workforce.

Some job losses would seem to be inevitable but, if these figures are to be believed, Bolton is not as exposed to sudden decline as it was in the days when it was principally a textile town.