Older blog posts
Chris Murray
27 Mar 2013
Britain letting go?
Stephanie Flanders has posted an interesting article and film on the BBC website ‘Should Britain let go of London?’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21934564
It debates whether the economic relationship between the capital and the rest of the country is actually healthy, and whether the growth in London has held the rest of the country back, particularly amongst its ‘second tier’ cities. She concludes that the real issue is over-centralisation by successive Governments, leading to policy which focuses on South East problems and does not necessarily help other places to resolve theirs.
It is true that London has seen growth of twice the national average between 2007-11, and public investment in London tends to be much higher than the...
Jen Rickard
18 Oct 2012
Core Cities, home to 16 million people, deliver the lion’s share of England’s growth outside London. Yet their productivity lags behind many international competitors. Because of their scale, and role, increasing the economic output of these cities even slightly will have a profound effect on rebalancing the national economy. If the UK is to remain a competitive, attractive place to do business, it needs to increase its relative international position, which can only be delivered at scale for the country through cities that currently have capacity.
But that growth needs to be sustainable, environmentally and socially, building on the assets, natural resources and infrastructure of the Core Cities, and enabling more people to share in the dividends of growth. With the severe financial challenges faced by local authorities, growth will be hard to achieve without additional tools to reduce dependency, to create and then get...
Jen Rickard
11 Jan 2012
Although now symbolic, in medieval England freedom of the city was originally conveyed to signify that someone enjoyed a ‘free status’, had the right to trade, earn money and participate fully in the economy. The parallel for decentralisation to cities from the state is similar in this one respect. Cities drive growth, and they do best when freed from central constraint. Core Cities Group has laboured over this single, critical message for more than 15 years, building evidence and positive argument, and many others have made very significant contributions particularly in recent years.
‘Unlocking City Growth’, launched at a recent IPPR North event by the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister for Cities Greg Clark MP, is therefore very much welcomed by...