Manchester is best placed to handle changing economic landscape

A report published today states that Greater Manchester’s emerging governance arrangements place it in the best position to handle the radically changing economic and political landscape.

The report which draws on the findings of a recent study examined both the relationship between agglomeration economies, the tendency for economic activities to group together in particular places, and also city/metropolitan governance in Europe.

The study supports the notion of agglomeration economies and suggests that in the future key city regions will increasingly dominate the economic landscape.

The report highlights that city regional governance has a role to influence the way in which public policy and investments are captured and coordinated for the economic benefit of a particular area.

Professor Alan Harding, one of the paper’s authors said: “Greater Manchester compares well with other European case studies in most respects but is disadvantaged by the absence of a long run, supportive national context and rationale for the building of city regional governance capacity.

“If the coalition government reforms result in a further commitment to decentralisation and the development of cross-local authority capacity, Manchester is better placed than any other provincial city-region to adjust to changes in the political environment.”

Mike Emmerich, Chief Executive of New Economy commented “Building on the Manchester Independent Economic Review, this paper provides useful intelligence putting Greater Manchester’s experience of economic transformation into a broader, European Perspective. Manchester needs to build on its excellent record to date, in the light of announcements in tomorrow’s Spending Review”.

ENDS

• The Working Paper was based on the study for ESPON – The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, part-funded by the European Union. See www.espon.eu

• The case studies examined as part of the ESPON Report were Barcelona, Dublin, Lyon and Manchester.

• New Economy Working Papers are designed both to produce robust pieces of analysis that stimulate the long-term sustainable economic growth of the Manchester city region and to act as a vehicle for economic development professionals to further their personal development. Papers are intended to invigorate intellectual and challenging debate on the key economic issues and ideas of the time.

• Overall responsibility for developing New Economy Working Papers lies with an independent Editorial Board

• The views expressed in the New Economy Working Paper ”Agglomeration and Governance: Greater Manchester in a European Perspective” are those of the authors, Professor Alan Harding, Dr James Rees, and Dr Marianne Sensier alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of members of the New Economy Working Papers Editorial Board or the Commission for the New Economy.