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New report reveals UK cities most exposed to recession

Cities Outlook 2009

Centre for Cities today released a new report that reveals the cities most exposed to recession - and least well placed to ride out job losses and business closures over the coming months.  In 2009 all cities will feel recession bite but they will also be leading the upturn as the economy recovers.

Woolies: The Cantle Challenge

From The Times

January 17, 2009

Woolies’ demise is a community opportunity

Woolworths was at the heart of communities and must be replaced by local businesses not more faceless brands

Sir, The tragic demise of Woolworths has left a huge gap to fill. In market towns all across the country “the wonder of Woolies” was that it provided a heart to our high streets. Instead of refilling all of the 800 shop premises with yet another “brand”, we believe there is the opportunity to do things differently: to help to remake the high street and to create local community/business networks to harness entrepreneurial talent, foster resilience, build local sustainability and create a new and productive bond between people, business and the community.

A number of reports have already drawn attention to the homogenisation of our high street — a handful of national and local brands dominate every shopping centre from Truro to Tynemouth. Moreover, for once, let’s anticipate the impact of recession on communities and intervene before tensions arise, and we all pay the price in loss of cohesion. If the money is there to underwrite the financial system, there must surely be enough for the modest intervention in the renewal of our communities.

We propose that the former Woolworths stores be converted into modern market halls, owned and controlled at a local level, providing space and support for local grown produce and locally produced goods. The first occupants could be the local farmers who presently have to contend with all weathers on windswept car parks. They could share refrigeration, storage, cash handling and marketing, gaining a prominent daily foothold in the high street, benefiting from the economies of scale.

But other local products could also be brought to market, again sharing many services and with access to business support and business development.

Each local store could be run by local chambers of commerce or other community groups with support from local authorities, using their economic development powers and, just as importantly, by networking local producers and business services to reconnect with the retail industry in local communities. We hear a lot about the importance of building social capital and the role of civil society. Rarely do we get the chance to invest in their renewal to the benefit of people and community.

It would be a tragedy to waste this once in a generation opportunity.

Ted Cantle

Executive Chair, Institute of Community Cohesion

Cities Unlimited

A controversial report , Cities Unlimited, from the Policy Exchange think tank claims a decade of regeneration policies has failed to stop the inequality of opportunity between towns and cities in the North and those in the South East increasing. The report advocates a significant shift of resources, and new housing,  from northern cities to the 'economic power houses [Oxford and Cambridge]that can grow and create new high-skilled, high-wage service sector hubs.'

"If we are to ensure that people in this country have similar opportunities, regardless of where they are born, we need to allow people to move from places with few prospects to places that offer more opportunities.”

Gap widening between ‘resurgent’ and ‘stuck cities’

 How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy?

The Work Foundation today releases a league table of the productivity of different cities across the UK that reveals wide and growing disparities between ‘resurgent’ cities and those that appear to be ‘stuck’. Lack of vision and failure to collaborate with neighbours are considered significant waeknesses. Historic coastal towns fare particulary badly in this changing environment. Differences risk being exacerbated by the credit crunch as too many UK cities have built up a reliance on financial service jobs compared to their European counterparts, the How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy? report warns.  

"Many refuse to recognise that their economic future relies on trade links with a neighbouring city that, despite being a historic rival, is now thriving. And they are often blighted by either chaotic or complacent leadership."

Parkour at Portsmouth Cathedral

Urban sport takes over sacred space

Parkour  will be performed with organ music at Portsmouth Cathedral as part of a nine-day celebration of arts across the city.

An elected Mayor for every major English town and city

Mayors rule,   Michael Kenny and Guy Lodge consider the case in  IPPR’s quarterly journal Public Policy Research (ppr).

“Even though mayors have proved a success in places like London, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, the current system allows councils to block the creation of more mayors. Mayoral campaigns like the current London one help to invigorate local politics by provoking interest and debate on local issues. "

Global port cities under threat

Guardian Unlimited Photo essay

New research aims to pinpoint which cities are most reliant on adequate flood defences, and investigates how climate change is likely to impact each port city’s exposure to coastal flooding by the 2070s, taking into account socio-economic factors such as population growth and urbanisation.

WALKING THE M62

John Davies' M62 journal available to download

During the months of September and October 2007 Liverpool parish priest John Davies took a walk across the north of England following the route of the M62 motorway east to west from Hull to his home back in Liverpool. This is an edited version of the daily entries John posted on his walk website.

Weathering the storm

English Hertiage considers the future of the coastal resorts

Allan Brodie   has spent the last five years travelling the country studying seaside towns and whose book, England's Seaside Resorts, is published next month - this image of seasonal exodus and decay is a partial one. While towns such as Margate may have struggled to revive their fortunes after holidaymakers turned their backs on the traditional English bucket-and-spade break, it is important, he says, to dispel myths about coastal resorts generally being in a state of terminal decline.

Guardian report

DCLG on Caostal Towns

COASTAL TOWNS REPORT

Another side of the seaside

The Communities and Local Government Committee have extended the debate on the future of seaside communities in their Coastal Towns report (a debate highlighted by last year's Faithful Cities report p.34).

Labour MP Phyllis Starkey, said: "We were disappointed to find that the government has conducted no research into the situation of coastal towns in recent years, nor did we receive any evidence demonstrating that there was any action or liaison between departments specifically on coastal towns."

The report found that in England as a whole since 1997 there had been a 2.2% increase in claimants of incapacity benefit, special disability allowance or income support - but in seaside towns the rise had been 12%.