Given the economic backdrop, I’m not sure that there are many people who would want to be in George Osborne’s shoes today as he gives his Budget statement...
…but yesterday we asked our twitter followers to imagine that they were, asking them what they would choose to prioritise to boost growth in our cities. As you might expect we received a wide range of responses, but look carefully, and some common themes do emerge. Here’s a quick summary of some of the top responses:
So, respondents to our question tended to call for the devolution of more powers to local areas, a bigger focus on housing and transport investment and reforms to business taxes to encourage investment.
The Centre has already written to the Chancellor asking for three specific measures to be included in the Budget. First, a bold response to the Heseltine Review of local growth, to give cities far greater autonomy over their economic development budgets and help them better support local economic growth. Second, to focus investment in housing on the most unaffordable cities and sites that already have planning permission, while also giving cities with weaker economies a different set of housing incentives to encourage refurbishment and replacement. Third, to rethink the way that investment in cities is supported through reforming Urban Development Funds.
Thanks to everyone who took part yesterday. We don’t have long to wait now before we find out whether any or all of these proposals will be included in the Budget. Of course, if all else fails we could always go with Brian Groom’s suggestion…
Look out for our live-tweeting and blogging throughout the day, followed by a rapid response commentary later this afternoon.
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