Building stronger cities at home and abroad
Author: Dermot FinchDate: 11/07/2008
Publication: Yorkshire Post
As a senior policy advisor at the Treasury and at the British Embassy in Washington, I witnessed many a UK minister and policy official go cap in hand to the United States to scout for more ideas about how to improve our cities. But whilst we have plenty of our own achievements to showcase, US politicians don't always follow suit.
Amidst credit crunch and house price doom and gloom, it's easy to forget the journey our cities have been on over the last couple of decades. There's been something of the urban renaissance in our cities across the UK, which enjoyed sustained policy attention from Conservative and Labour ministers. UK cities have also seen a national drive to hold back urban sprawl and keep the high street alive and more support for the less well-off families living there.
Ex-industrial cities like Leeds and Sheffield have seen jobs growth of 15% and 25% respectively in a single decade. Our rejuvenated city and town centres attract vast numbers of visitors - whether it's a conference in Harrogate, a hen weekend in Leeds or a family holiday to York. In Leeds alone, the numbers employed by the hotel and restaurant industry has increased by 17% and 20% respectively in the last five years. Cities are once again popular places to live, work and do business.
This was no overnight turnaround. At the Centre for Cities we yesterday launched our latest research with Brookings, a Washington based research institute. The findings point to UK innovations which the next US administration and American mayors could look into - to help American cities compete in the future.
Firstly, American leaders could study UK efforts to keep town and city centres alive. The 1980s and early 1990s we saw a proliferation of out-of-town shopping malls, akin to developments already dominant in the States. In 1996 the Conservative Government put ‘Town Centre First' planning rules in place to hold back the numbers of new car-dependent out of town shopping centres and office parks - and stop town and city centres turning into ghost towns. Shopping in Leeds centre has become a tourist attraction in itself with the city's own five storey Harvey Nichols' drawing in shoppers from across the north.
The Labour Government took further steps to beat suburban sprawl by using planning targets to reuse urban land where appropriate - rather than building further out into the countryside. By 2006 almost three quarters of new developments were taking place on brownfield land - helping cities like Leeds and Birmingham to avoid sprawling car dependent suburbs escalating. Meanwhile Atlanta and Los Angeles have become known for their lengthy commutes and daily gridlock.
The US could also learn from the UK's family tax credit system, which, for all the criticism of its complexity, has helped people back into work and provided a safety net for low and middle income families across UK cities. This was an idea we originally swiped off the Yanks, but the UK's system is more generous and paid more regularly - monthly rather than annually - helping families meet ongoing expenses over the year. The average number claiming benefits in Leeds has fallen from 16% in 1999 to 13% in 2007, 2% below Great Britain's average.
Lastly, the US could look at how UK cities have risen up the national agenda and out of the shadows of industrial decline. Kick started by Michael Heseltine's city development initiatives under the Conservative Government, in recent years UK cities have benefited from close attention of senior ministers. Tony Blair's Social Exclusion Unit, Gordon Brown's target to reduce child poverty and John Prescott's expert Urban Task Force shows a sustained effort to prioritise physical regeneration and economic growth in deprived areas.
With typical British modesty we haven't tended to shout about these successes. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's visit with London's new mayor and their promise to swap ideas and experts from the Capital's transport projects to crime fighting in the Big Apple marks a turn in the tide. And I'm not surprised to see city mayors at the forefront.
There are of course lessons that we can still learn from the States - we are one of the most centralised countries in the world. Only 5% of tax revenues are raised by our councils, locally compared to 41% in the US. This curtails UK cities ability to innovate and grow their economies. Major UK cities like Leeds City Region would benefit from US style super mayors who - with more control over their own finances - could drive forward major transport and housing improvements in the city.
But the policy learning can and should go both ways. We have our own urban policy ideas to shout about - and this will help build stronger cities at home and abroad.
A version of this article first appeared in the Yorkshire Post.
