Measuring ‘levelling up’: New indexes on business and job opportunities
Source: Centre For Cities Published: February 13th, 2020
Findings
There is a North/South divide on both indexes. Cities and large towns in the Greater South East perform strongly across the basket of business indicators, and they offer a greater number of employment opportunities.
There is a great deal of variation between the largest cities and towns in the North and Midlands. Some, like Manchester, Coventry, and Leeds for example, perform in line or even better than the urban average, suggesting that, with the right support, they could more easily catch up with the economic growth of their more successful southern counterparts.
What does this mean for policy and the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda?
An important part of improving the daily lives of people will be to end local government austerity in this year’s Spending Review and increase spending on everyday services such as education and policing.
Government investment to improve the economy outside the Greater South East of England will need to be more selective. Economic realities mean that the Government must be careful what it promises so as not to create a noose for its own neck.
Many cities and large towns are not offering the benefits required for business as the national economy becomes ever more knowledge-based. The economic strand of ‘levelling up’ needs to focus on addressing the reasons why there are too few higher-skilled, better-paid job opportunities located in urban areas outside the Greater South East. A key part of this approach needs to address the underperformance of the North and Midland’s biggest cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool if it is to bring greater prosperity to many millions of people.
Click here to read more
Photo by Patrick Robert Doyle on Unsplash