Thinktank recommends economic strategy for Blackburn
Author: Chris WebberDate: 07/06/2010
Publication: Blackburn Town Centre
In the wake of the recession and with the £6 billion of public spending cuts now happening, England urgently needs to grow its economy and create more private sector jobs.
As we show in our new report, Private Sector Cities, the problem is that the performance of the private sector varies enormously across the country. Between 1998 and 2008 ten private sector jobs were created in London and the South for every one job created in the North and Midlands. In Blackburn, the private sector actually shrank by more than 10 percent over this decade, even though the economy as a whole was experiencing relatively strong growth.
It certainly wasn’t all bad news in the North though. Places like Preston, Wakefield, Manchester and Newcastle all added thousands of new private sector jobs to their economies between 1998 and 2008. Preston, for example, added more than 17,000 extra private sector jobs to its economy over this period.
These kinds of variations in private sector performance raise some very difficult challenges for those who want to cut long term unemployment and raise incomes for the less well off.
In order to do that, people need access to job opportunities. But in some cities and towns there simply are not enough jobs for everyone to be able to find work. In 2008, there were three unemployed people for every vacancy in Blackburn. In Barnsley there were five. And in Hull there were seven.
Successive governments have tried to intervene to stop the geography of job opportunities shifting across the country. For example, the last Government tried to boost enterprise in deprived areas and has spent millions creating new space for businesses.
But the problem is that the overall impact of these policies has been disappointing, and private sector growth has remained much stronger in other areas of the country. With much less money available for this kind of spending in the years ahead the chances of this approach having the desired effect seem more remote than ever.
So what should a new approach to the economic development of cities entail?
For buoyant cities – such as Milton Keynes, Reading and Brighton – that means expanding the supply of housing and the transport capacity to help people access the jobs that are being created.
Meanwhile, the city economies with a tougher outlook – such as Hull, Burnley and Blackburn – still need intensive government support, but the objectives need to change. The emphasis should be on helping people adjust to the shifting geography of opportunity in our economy. For example, people’s skills need to be improved, but job opportunities for the people of Blackburn won’t all be on their doorstep. Residents these days increasingly need to commute to other towns and cities where there are more jobs.
And physical investments needn’t necessarily focus on enabling business growth. Instead, they might generate more benefit for local residents if they improve the quality of the housing stock or introduce more parks instead of more business space.
A new approach is needed that focuses on working with the tide of change in city economies rather than against it.
A version of this article first appeared on Blackburn Town Centre
