The city of Bristol has claimed top spot in a league table of Britain's most sustainable cities, a study by development group Forum for the Future will today reveal.

Bristol beat last year's winner Brighton and Hove into second place, with the South West city winning plaudits thanks in part to its impressive increase in recycling and composting rates, and its consistently high scores on water quality, waste collection and green spaces.

Brighton was rated highest for quality of life and future- proofing but came in second place overall because of its comparative poor performance on the environment. Plymouth, in third place, has the best environmental performance, while Newcastle jumped from eighth to fourth, and is the only northern city in the top five.

Forum for the Future is a not-for-profit sustainable development group that works in partnership with more than 130 leading organisations in business and the public sector, helping them devise more sustainable strategies and deliver these in the form of new products and services.

The Forum's second annual Sustainable Cities Index tracked the progress on sustainability in Britain's 20 largest cities, ranking them on environmental performance, quality of life and future-proofing – how well they are addressing issues such as climate change, recycling and biodiversity.

Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "Forum for the Future's Sustainable Cities Index has driven real change by inspiring cities to adopt more ambitious sustainability strategies and by providing a framework against which they can benchmark their efforts."

Peter Madden, chief executive of the Forum, said: "Leaders with passion and drive, who put sustainability at the heart of their vision, can create thriving cities which offer their people a high quality of life, respect their environment, and have the resilience to cope with the changes climate change will bring."

Helen Clarkson, of Forum for the Future, said: "Bristol has been very consistent across all the indicators we look at. Sustainability has been on the agenda long term for Bristol as people have been doing this stuff for years and all the benefits are beginning to fall into place."

Despite its success, Bristol, actually came bottom on one of the criteria the Forum looked at.

"Transport was the one thing people we spoke to on the streets in Bristol complained most about," said Miss Clarkson.

"People said public transport was a joke and a lot of people would much rather cycle because of the price of bus fares and the congestion in the city."

The report reveals that a clear North-South divide still exists when it comes to sustainable issues.

Southern cities tend to perform better in the quality of life indicators and all feature in the top 10, while the industrial heritage of the Midlands and North is reflected in lower life expectancy.

Edinburgh and Leeds, which both featured in the top five last year, slipped further down the scale, dropping four and nine places respectively.

Liverpool, Birmingham and Hull remain in the bottom three.

But not even the UK's best-performing cities, such as Bristol, can match international leaders in sustainability like Stockholm, Portland in the US and Curitiba in Brazil, the report found.

Mr Madden said: "I'd like to see some shining examples of what makes a truly sustainable city here on home-turf, so that we can not only inspire other UK cities to follow, but can also be the inspiration for cities around the world."

The top ten cities are Bristol, Brighton & Hove, Plymouth, Newcastle, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Leicester, Nottingham and London.