The Coalition Government has proposed a range of policies that will have a big impact on economic development in our cities.  However, many of these policies are geared towards helping cities that already have strong private sectors.  For example, borrowing against future business rate uplift is only likely to work in cities that already have strong developer interest due to the strength of their private sectors.  And the presumption of planning in favour of sustainable development set out in the Localism Bill will affect those cities that are most constrained by planning currently, which tend to be more successful cities in the South East.

Clearly there is economic potential in cities beyond those that stand to benefit from the proposed new policies.  However, public intervention may be required to unlock this potential, and a range of policies will be required to help support growth in cities such as Sunderland.  The Centre for Cities will attempt in this work to fill the policy gap that currently exists for ‘mid-tier’ cities by creating a policy agenda for cities with less resilient private sectors.

For further details contact Paul Swinney.

Reports:

• Interim report: Hidden potential Supporting growth in Sunderland and England's other "mid-sized" cities

This work is supported by PwC and Sunderland City Council.