Thread by @MagriniElena, #Citiesoutlook2021 is out now - our annual health check of the UK's [...]

#Citiesoutlook2021 is out now - our annual health check of the UK's 63 largest cities and towns.

This year we focused on the impact of Covid on local economies and its interaction w the levelling up agenda.

Full report

and thread w main findings…1/ https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2021/

Cities Outlook 2021 - Centre for Cities

After the most challenging of years, Cities Outlook 2021 assesses the impact of Covid on urban life and on the Government’s promise to level up the economy.

https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2021/

While the Government was elected in 2019 with a levelling up agenda, it had to spend most of 2020 firefighting an health crisis. So how has Covid-19 affected the domestic agenda in the meantime? 2/

First, Covid-19 has made levelling up the North and Midlands at least four times harder, with Birmingham, Hull and Blackpool facing the biggest challenges.

And depending on how the Job Retention Scheme gets phased out, the challenge could be up to 8 times harder. 3/

Alongside making levelling up more challenging, Covid-19 now risks to create a new levelling down challenge as some places in the South of England, like Crawley and Slough have been hit disproportionately hard. 4/

London too is among the places hardest hit by the pandemic – with some of its boroughs actually seeing the largest increases in the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits since March. 5/

While no corner of the UK has been left unaffected by the pandemic, it is really important to understand that Covid-19 and levelling up are two different challenges. 6/

For most places, Covid-19 is mostly a local services challenge: shops and restaurants are closed and this has a negative effect on job opportunities. But once restrictions are lifted, we can be reasonably confident things will bounce back pretty quickly 7/

But for some places, Covid-19 has either had a bigger effect on local services – especially because more people work from home – or affected their exporting bases – the jobs that create growth in a local economy. These places will likely find it more difficult to bounce back. 8/

Levelling up instead is specifically an exporting businesses challenge. Places w fewer exporting businesses, and less productive ones, tend to have weaker economies w fewer job opportunities.

This is a decades long challenge that needs to be addressed w long-term policies. 9/

Based on the interaction between the Covid-19 challenge and the levelling up challenge, we can split our 63 largest cities and towns in four categories – clearly showing they need different policy responses. 10/

So what needs to change? Every place now needs support to bounce back from Covid. How?

1.Making the UC uplift permanent
2.Continuing to protect workers with JRS for as long as restrictions are in place
3.Encouraging people to spend once it is safe 11/

For some places, bouncing back from Covid won’t be enough. They need support to level up. This should focus on making them more attractive places to businesses by:
1.Investing in skills
2.Improving city centre offer
3.Improving infrastructure
4.Investing in R&D
5.More devo 12/

That’s it for CO chapter 2.

In chapter 1 we looked at how the role of cities has changed and we also have a new data tool w all the latest indicators about the economic performance of our largest cities and towns.

All the latest info here. /End https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2021/

Cities Outlook 2021 - Centre for Cities

After the most challenging of years, Cities Outlook 2021 assesses the impact of Covid on urban life and on the Government’s promise to level up the economy.

https://www.centreforcities.org/publication/cities-outlook-2021/

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