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Fast Growth Cities — 2021 and beyond

By Kathrin Enenkel, Tom Sells  |  5 March 2021

Fast Growth Cities — 2021 and beyond

By Kathrin Enenkel, Tom Sells  |  5 March 2021

Select Chapter
  • Executive summary
    • Labour markets, skills and education
    • Businesses and growth
    • High streets and city centres
    • Housing and planning
    • Transport
    • Economic impact of the pandemic
  • Introduction
    • Why these cities matter – strengths and opportunities of the Fast Growth Cities
    • Constraints on future growth
  • Fast Growth Cities before the pandemic
    • 1. Labour markets, skills and education
    • Figure 1: Nearly all Fast Growth Cities have more people in employment than the national average
    • Case study 1: Addressing a low employment rate with job creation through inward investments
    • Figure 2: The share of people employed in high-quality sectors in the Fast Growth Cities is above average
    • Figure 3: Fast Growth Cities are employment hubs for their surrounding regions
    • Case study 2: Coping with a lack of degree-level workers
    • Figure 4: Skill levels vary across the Fast Growth Cities
    • Figure 5: Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford make strong contributions to the higher education sector in Great Britain
    • 2. Business and growth
    • Figure 6: Most Fast Growth Cities have higher than average shares of people employed in more productive industries
    • Figure 7: Milton Keynes and Swindon drive productivity growth within the Fast Growth Cities
    • Box 1: Measuring innovative capacity
    • Table 8: There is a strong variation in innovation systems across the Fast Growth Cities
    • Case study 3: Completing the local innovation system
    • Case study 4: Generating spillovers from the university to the business sector
    • 3. High streets and city centres
    • Figure 9: The majority of Fast Growth Cities have high shares of retail space in their city centres
    • Figure 10: Many Fast Growth Cities are attractive places for holiday and business trips
    • 4. Housing and planning
    • Figure 11: The high demand for housing in many Fast Growth Cities has led to high house prices
    • Figure 12: Most Fast Growth Cities made strong efforts to deliver more housing
    • Case study 5: Reducing unaffordability and increasing the stock of houses
    • Box 2: How energy efficient is the domestic building stock in the FGCs?
    • 5. Transport
    • Figure 14: For all Fast Growth Cities, the car is the most common mode of transport
    • Case study 6: Greater Cambridge transport strategy
    • Figure 15: Accessibility by car is higher than by public transport for all Fast Growth Cities
    • Conclusion
  • The impact of the pandemic on FGCs
    • Figure 16: The Fast Growth Cities are strongly affected by the crisis, but most of them are less affected than other UK cities
    • Figure 17: Not all high streets recovered at the same speed after the first national lockdown was relaxed
    • Figure 18: Cities such as Norwich, Oxford and Cambridge that are more dependent on visitors from outside the city centre, such as students and tourists, saw slower recoveries
    • Figure 19: After the first national lockdown was relaxed, spending in the Fast Growth Cities did not return to pre-lockdown levels
  • What needs to change
  • Appendix

05Appendix

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