BRIGHTON and Hove has been named the best city in the UK to start a “side hustle” during the pandemic.

There has been a surge in online businesses launched amid the coronavirus crisis, according to a new study by the UK Domain.

It ranked towns and cities on criteria including broadband speed, population, life satisfaction and the average time spent working.

Brighton and Hove was found to have the best working conditions overall to start a new online business, with an overall score of 68.79.

The city scored highly on index ranking factors including life satisfaction, broadband speed, disposable income and having low average working hours.

The study showed that 7,377 new domains were registered in Brighton and Hove during the peak of the first coronavirus lockdown earlier this year.

Edinburgh came in at second on the list with 5,504 newly registered domains during lockdown, while Gloucester came third with 4,909.