By Andrew Pring | 1 September 2014
Local authorities outside London must collaborate more if their regions are to achieve higher economic growth, a study by Grant Thornton has concluded.
In a report based on the firm’s High Growth Index, which ranks English cities and districts on their growth between 2004 and 2012, Grant Thornton found there were a number of ‘growth corridors’ – large scale local economic areas in England – that play a major role in the country’s overall growth levels.
While many of these start and stem from London, other corridors are made up of large cities outside the Southeast, such as Liverpool to Manchester and Leeds, Nottingham to Sheffield, and Birmingham and Warwickshire.
Grant Thornton partner Phillip Wooley said the index showed the need to focus on creating economic scale outside the capital through collaboration to drive sustainable growth.
‘The growth corridors identified by the report highlight a number of implications for those local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships, both in and out of these corridors,’ he said.
‘For local economies within a growth corridor, it's vital that their leaders and economic stakeholders collaborate to manage and deliver growth in a joined up and complementary way, and also consider their local strengths and assets in a broader context, be that human capital or local amenities.’
Cities not identified in these corridors must also understand how they can engage with them to boost their own growth rates, he added.
‘For some, this could be about becoming part of the corridor over time through the creation of physical, governance and operational linkages. For others, it will be about identifying opportunities and services it could provide in relation to demand from the growth corridors, given its own economic selling points, this could be availability of land, housing or lower labour costs.’
Growth areas had high-value, knowledge-intensive businesses, and had diverse communities with a young and economically active workforce, coupled as well as strong transport and technological connectivity.
Based on the High Growth Index London maintains nine of the top 10 best performing districts overall. Outside of the capital, the report named Manchester, Birmingham and Milton Keynes as the top three cities as measured by their economic growth and demographic growth. In addition, Cambridge, Reading and Manchester are highlighted as areas capable of supporting future expansion.
The report highlighted that local authority chief executives uniformly stress the importance of infrastructure to their growth prospects.
‘Infrastructure is essential to the competitiveness of individual places and as such it is a vital component in growth, both in terms of driving it but also sustaining it,’ it stated.
‘Investment in transport, utilities, communication, housing and workplace infrastructure is critical for areas as they adapt to growing populations.’
