A regional daily has hit out in defence of its patch after a German news magazine portrayed it as a “charred economic wasteland”.

Hamburg-based title Der Speigel ran a feature about Nottingham, using a family from the city as a case study of a “country gripped by Brexit”.

Its publication has prompted the Nottingham Post to respond with an article highlighting 12 reason why it is proud of its patch.

Reasons give by the Post include Nottingham’s status as the UK’s greenest city, the fact it is a host venue for the Cricket World Cup and that it has lower house prices and rent than the national average.

In the piece, Post local democracy reporter Kit Sandeman wrote: “When a German magazine chose to do a special feature about how tough life in Britain is, they settled on Nottingham in an attempt to show just how bleak life is here. It paints the city as a charred economic wasteland, and argues that across Britain ‘hunger is rampant on the island’.

“When describing life in Nottingham, it borrows words from English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, like: ‘Human life is lonely, poor, disgusting, animal and short.’ The piece focuses on poverty in the city, and the support people receive, arguing life is getting worse for us.

“But there’s a major problem with the article, which was printed in news magazine Der Spiegel this week – it spends 2,000 words criticising Nottingham and the UK, but it doesn’t mention a single positive thing about life in our home city.

“Of course we have our problems, like any other city, but we think this is still a great place to live, work and raise a family.”

HTFP reported in 2016 how the Sunderland Echo had hit out at the New York Times, which it accused of printing a “biased, patronising and grossly distorted picture” of its patch in a feature published in the wake of the European Union referendum.

Der Spiegel declined to comment when approached by HTFP.