The UK is by some measures the most geographically unequal developed economy in the world. While cities and large towns in the Greater South East of England are among the most productive and prosperous places in Europe, most in the North and Midlands lag far behind.
The Government has set out its intention to address this inequality and ‘level up’ underperforming and left-behind parts of the UK through a programme of infrastructure development, investing in education, skills and scientific R&D.
Because the vast majority of UK economic activity takes place in the largest 63 cities and towns, they are crucial to the levelling up agenda.
This briefing presents two new indexes to summarise and compare the performance of the UK's largest cities and towns. The findings have implications for policy, particularly the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda.
The Government has restated in recent weeks its commitment to 'levelling up' the economy once the current crisis subsides. But how should this be done?
How should the Government roll back its support in a way that allows growth to occur across the country?
Unemployment claimant counts are up everywhere in the country, with cities and large towns with weaker economies in the North and Midlands most affected.
Unlike many other developed economies, the UK’s largest cities and towns do not become more productive as they get bigger. In Germany, France, and the United States, there is a positive relationship between city size and productivity, as measured by GDP per worker.
This relationship does not hold in the UK. A number of small cities, such as Slough and Swindon, are more productive than expected and, with the clear exception of London, most large cities are less productive.
Even after adjusting the size of cities to take into account people who commute into them for work, most of the UK’s large cities still underperform. Their underperformance affects many more people than the underperformance of small- and medium-sized places, and has much larger implications for the national economy.
Among those underperforming cities, if the eight largest closed their output gap, the UK economy would be £47.4 billion larger in total — equivalent to adding two extra economies the size of Newcastle to national output. Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow account for 70 per cent of this gap. For comparison, if all of the underperforming small- and medium-sized cities closed their output gaps, the UK economy would be £22.5 billion larger in total.
What needs to change
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The Government has restated in recent weeks its commitment to 'levelling up' the economy once the current crisis subsides. But how should this be done?
How should the Government roll back its support in a way that allows growth to occur across the country?
Kanishka Narayan, Associate at Centre for Cities, joins Andrew Carter to discuss his latest research into problem debt in UK cities.
Unemployment claimant counts are up everywhere in the country, with cities and large towns with weaker economies in the North and Midlands most affected.
New research finds that cities with a combination of both scientific and creative industries are often the most innovative.
Large cities and towns in the North and Midlands entered the Coronavirus lockdown in a much weaker position than the rest of the country.
Once the coronavirus crisis has passed, Keir Starmer has the task of reshaping the party. A change in how it views cities and towns is vital.
There is a concern that school closures – albeit necessary for public health reasons – will further widen the gap between children living in disadvantaged areas and their better off peers.
A recent study by Centre for Cities, commissioned by Connected Places Catapult, analysed which of Great Britain’s 62 cities and largest towns have the most potential to harness extra public R&D funding and convert it into wider local economic growth – helping level up the whole UK.
As part of his response to Coronavirus, the Chancellor announced that small businesses in retail, leisure and hospitality will be exempted from business rates this year. But how will this play out across the country?
