Roy Keane, the manager of Sunderland Football Club, blamed it on wives and shopping. Overpaid footballers, he said, would rather play for an inferior London team than head to Wearside and miss out on upmarket retail therapy.
Policy Exchange, the Conservative-leaning think-tank, says there’s more to it. Sunderland is isolated, it has severe skills problems and regeneration schemes have undoubtedly failed to halt its decline. Other Northern cities – including Liverpool, Bradford and Bolton – face similar woes.
It was a bleak assessment of the long-awaited urban renaissance, and the proposed solution was equally disturbing. According to the Policy Exchange report, citizens of such ‘failing’ cities should head south and try their luck in London, Oxford or Cambridge.
Politicians of all hues, unsurprisingly, condemned this simplistic and insensitive analysis. It was particularly embarrassing for David Cameron who, with unfortunate timing, was starting his tour of Northern marginals.
Cameron described the proposals as ‘insane’, as indeed they were. But it is clear that, despite New Labour spending billions of pounds on regeneration, the gap between successful and unsuccessful cities is growing.
Both Labour and the Tories are looking for new ideas to attract the electorate. Rather than considering silly-season proposals from over-excited think-tanks, perhaps they should be talking more to those on the front line.
The Core Cities Group would be a good place to start. This collection of eight English cities advocates bold ideas, such as accelerated development zones, where councils borrow against future tax income to pay for public projects, and regional infrastructure funds.
Alan Gay, director of resources at Leeds City Council, thinks these innovative funding mechanisms would boost England’s Northern heartlands and the Treasury’s coffers. Writing in this week’s PF (pages 22-23), he claims they could ‘unlock the potential of our urban areas’.
It’s not as eye-catching as Policy Exchange’s proposals, but it has the benefit of pragmatism and common sense.
