Response to Jackie Sadek
There has been a healthy discussion about Cities Outlook 2012 in Estates Gazette this year. As readers of this blog will know, Cities Outlook is Centre for Cities’ annual health check of UK cities and urban areas. It is an overview of how cities are faring across a range of different indicators and its role is to measure the economic performance of cities over the past year. The report is a tool for cities and national government, to help places understand the fundamentals of their economies; to help them assess how they have changed since the previous year, to take advantage of their strengths and to meet their challenges.
At Centre for Cities we really value feedback from our colleagues on our work. So we were interested to read our good friend Jackie Sadek’s blog, (Centre for Cities should revisit Sunderland, 30 January 2012) and I thought it would be useful to clarify a few points.
Most importantly, we all seem to be in agreement that Sunderland is a great city with potential. We’ve been working with Sunderland too, identifying opportunities to bring forward development in the city, so we know how committed the council is to harnessing the city’s potential for growth. The fact that the city is also working with IBM and UK Regeneration demonstrates how hard it is working to take advantage of business opportunities.
But Cities Outlook is not about a detailed picture of each city. Its role is to respond to the bigger picture and assess how different UK cities are likely to be affected by changes in the national economic climate. This year the backdrop of limited national growth, continued turmoil in the Eurozone and further cuts in the public sector means that unemployment will be one of the most significant challenges facing cities in 2012. Against measures such as business start-ups, high skilled residents and private sector jobs growth – indicators which suggest how well placed cities are to offset the contraction of the public sector – cities like Sunderland are more vulnerable to further increases in unemployment.
Over 2012 the Centre for Cities will continue to investigate how all cities can improve their economic performance in our more analytical reports. And we’ll continue to argue that it is precisely because Sunderland, similar to other cities, has opportunities as well as challenges that it is one of the places needing some extra support from government to overcome these hurdles. But even without that support it’s clear that the city will be proactive about making the most of any investment opportunities.
We know that Sunderland CityCouncil has big plans for the city and Centre for Cities is behind them all the way.
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