It remains a ‘big question’ whether the government’s package of city deals will be able to provide a boost to the economy, an expert on cities has said.
Speaking to the CIPFA conference in Liverpool on the day that the deals were announced, Professor Michael Parkinson queried whether the arrangements, which will devolve powers to eight cities will be effective.
‘Will they really deliver the economic recovery that we are looking for? [It’s a] big question,’ he told delegates at the conference on July 5.
Parkinson, director of the European Institute for Urban Affairs at Liverpool John Moores University, said that he backed the principle of localism.
However, he said the government’s drive had been undermined by cuts.
The ‘architecture’ of regeneration such as regional development agencies has been removed since the coalition government came into power in May 2010, he said, and the North of England has suffered ‘disproportionate’ cuts.
Parkinson, who has advised both the European Commission and the Department of Communities and Local Government on urban regeneration, said: ‘Are we willing the means as well as the end? My reaction is that we are going the wrong way. Localism yes, but strategic localism.’
However, Nathan Goode, head of energy, environment and sustainability at Grant Thornton, welcomed the deals, which he said had ‘the potential to transform the ability of cities to plan their own futures’.
Goode, who authored Grant Thornton's Sustainable Cities report last May, added: ‘This will only happen if the deals represent a substantive power shift away from the centre and are not simply the creation of another pot of money for local projects.
‘Cities also need to use this opportunity to create effective partnerships in their areas between public, private and community stakeholders and to plan for the next generation, embedding the principles of sustainability into their plans from the outset.’
