18 July 2008
City economies should be ready to fill skills gaps in employment for when there is an upturn in the economy, a government minister has said, as a report found the most successful cities in Britain were hubs for 'knowledge-intensive' industry.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears told a Work Foundation conference on the changing economy in British cities that everyone should have access to high-skilled, high-technology jobs.
'I think there are things we can do in the public sector both locally and nationally to try to help people through the difficult economic circumstances we are in,' she said. But city economies were the key for future prosperity when conditions improve, she added. 'Our cities need to be flexible, they need to be bold, they need to adapt, they need to be first out of the blocks.'
The Work Foundation launched its report, How can cities thrive in the changing economy?, at the conference on July 16. It said that across the UK there was a growing disparity between cities.
Towns such as Reading and Newcastle had attracted higher-value business, and more highly skilled workers over the past ten years but areas such as Wigan, Stoke-on-Trent and Hastings were falling behind.
For every job in other industries, there are now 12 jobs in knowledge-intensive industries, such as high-tech manufacturing or financial services.
However, cities that have relied too heavily on financial services could be left vulnerable by the credit crunch, the report's authors warned. Alexandra Jones, associate director at the Work Foundation, said: 'Some big cities have clearly bounced back from the decline of manufacturing, and have galvanised themselves to be productive, thriving, twenty-first century places. But look at the next tier and political alarm ought to set in.'
The report identifies successful knowledge-economies in York, Oxford, Newcastle and Cambridge.
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