The organisation believed that while large areas of cities up and down the country were benefitting from infrastructure projects, investment needed to be made in other areas to bring lasting improvements to cities.
While these city centres have been physically transformed and regenerated, less than a mile from Manchester’s new Piccadilly Station and London’s Canary Wharf, entrenched pockets of worklessness and underperforming housing markets remain.
Centre for Cities is calling for cities to move beyond physical city centre redevelopment towards the next wave of regeneration by skilling up workless residents in the surrounding areas and by investing in transport networks, linking people to jobs.
Its report, Cities Outlook 2008, claimed that half of the UK’s most improved cities, in terms of employment growth, are in the north.
But, with below average employment rates, these northern improvers still have a long way to go. The report reveals worrying economic inequalities within all large cities, up and down the country. Cities Outlook 2008 exposes the complexities behind the north-south divide.
The report shows that out of the top ten improving cities - based on employment growth over ten years - half are northern, including Derby, Doncaster and Sunderland, in 4th, 6th and 7th place. However, for four of these five northern cities employment rates are still considerably below the national average. Sunderland ranks almost bottom with 31 per cent of the city’s working age population not in employment compared 26%, nationally.
The report highlights the inequalities within as well as between cities up and down the country. Manchester, Birmingham and London each appeared in the report’s ranking of the ten most unequal urban areas, measured in terms of wealth and deprivation.
Across the city regions, the disparities are stark:
Greater Manchester: 35% of Manchester’s working-age population are not in employment, compared to 20% in Stockport.
Greater Birmingham: In Birmingham 37% of the working age population are not in employment, compared to 21% in neighbouring Solihull.
Greater London: 47% of Tower Hamlet’s working-age residents are not in employment, compared to over 22% in Sutton.
Dermot Finch, director of Centre for Cities, said: “These figures show that it’s less ‘grim up north’. Cities like Warrington and Doncaster are on the up, but need to sustain this momentum over many years if they are going to catch up with the likes of York and Milton Keynes.
“Our biggest cities like Birmingham, Manchester and London are polarised within their own boundaries. They need to address the deep-rooted wealth inequalities on their own patch, by moving beyond constructing shiny new buildings, if they are to continue to grow.”
