1. FUNCTIONAL ECONOMIC AREAS, POLYCENTRICTY & ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS Derek Whyte Assistant Director, Regeneration Preston City Council d.whyte@preston.gov.uk 01772 903401 Eurocities EDF Conference Preston 10 th June 2010

2. Structure of Presentation Part 1: This is Lancashire – a Polycentric City-Region Part 2:What are the characteristics of Polycentricity? Part 3:The Role of Sub-Regional Cities – Levering Agglomerative Growth

3. PART ONE: This is Lancashire… knowledge intensity within principal urban areas strong economic role for main /market towns important urban-rural contribution advanced manufacturing tourism economy professional service activity polycentric geography within an extensive rural sub-region

4. Lancashire – Five Functional Economic Areas (FEAs) – high degree of economic self containment within each area

5. WITH DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS, OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES…

6. Three “Multi-Area Agreement” (MAA) areas.

7. Current Reality Lancashire is 2 nd largest economy in NW of England – after Manchester Strengths in advanced engineering, tourism, quality of life Good communications N/S and central links to Manchester Some gaps in offer in higher value advanced producer services 4 Universities, some clusters of high skills Decline of traditional manufacturing towns (textiles) and seaside resort offer Most productive area is Centre/Mid Lancs – strong jobs growth, but GVA increase not as high as might have been expected Suggests job creation still too much in low skill areas including public sector Preston FEA has high levels of private sector jobs growth Need to raise entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprise across the area Lack of economic integration & exchange between three main blocks (5 FEAs)

8. PART TWO: The Characteristics of Polycentricty Polycentricity operates at various spatial levels: –Intra-urban (or internal city structure) – see Peter Hall on London –Inter-urban (or intra-regional) scale – central Lancashire –Inter-regional (or intra-European) scale - ESDP/”Polygon” Polycentric Urban Region (PUR) defined as three or more historically separate urban nodes with little hierarchical ranking and in reasonable proximity (though definitions are contested!) Assumed association with enhanced economic performance and assumed functional economic linkages But “association with” or “driver of” improved economic competitiveness? And to what extent do differences in characteristics of cities matter – how “path dependent” is the process?

9. Cities perform economically quite differently. A typology helps illuminate to differences between cities and in the dynamics between them Industrial – historically specialised in one or two dominant industries due to location advantages (e.g. access to coal) Heritage/tourism – attracts national/international visitors due to its natural assets or history/heritage University/knowledge – contains a leading university with capacity to promote innovation and clusters of spin-off companies City in large or capital city-region – benefits from its location within a capital/large city-region with complementary knowledge-based sectors to large city Regional services – more diverse economy due to the supply of employment, retail and other services to the wider region Gateway – provides physical connections to the international economy (e.g. port or airport)

10. Central Lancashire City Region’ – is an excellent place to explore differences in ‘place’

11. Blackpool Blackburn Burnley Greater Manchester Ribble Valley M65 To London To Glasgow M6 Preston Rail Key: Cities with characteristics of Tourism/Heritage Regional Services Industrial Travel-to-work area Irish SeaIrish Sea Note – brown arrows indicate direction of main travel-to-work movements M55 M61 Why understanding flows are important - Central Lancashire ‘City Region’ case study To Manchester Airport

12. Preston faces many of the challenges and opportunities of other Regional Services Cities Challenges Transition from industrial past Tackling social inequality arising from economic restructuring Improving national and international connectivity Opportunities Relatively diverse economy with developing modern service industry Rich asset base – e.g. university, city centre, heritage Destination rather than transit point Advantages in attracting or retaining highly-skilled workforce Bristol, UK Pécs, Hungary Source: www.trendsetter- europe.org Dijon Source: ww.riis.org

13. Blackpool has many of the classic characteristics of a heritage/tourism centre, but is one where challenges dominate Challenges Market - local, national or international? Seasonal tourism and changing fashions National and international connectivity Lower skilled, part-time and seasonal employment base Diversifying economic base Opportunities Heritage assets Use existing heritage/tourism assets to diversify into other service industries Reinvention – “Back to the future” (Steve Weaver, CE Blackpool Council) National and international markets Santiago de Compostela, Spain Source www.spanish-living.comwww.spanish-living.com Blackpool, UK Source: Source: www.hotelnet.co.uk www.hotelnet.co.uk

14. Blackburn – is a classic industrial city The east Lancashire economy is different to that of Preston. It is less well connected and has weaker markets (e.g. housing, services and retail). Blackburn has been a well run council for many years – but this has left problems such as the need to renew their 1960s shopping centre. Blackburn is seeking to build on its assets in advanced manufacturing

15. Thus both Blackburn and Burnley face both challenges and opportunities of other industrial cities Challenges Moving from industrial specialism Low skill base and weak entrepreneurial culture Developing a knowledge-based services economy often not an option Opportunities Work on the basics – local skills, employment and entrepreneurial culture Find new niches that use local skill and knowledge base Develop quality of life and place assets Seek a post-industrial future Blackburn Source: www.e- travelguide.infowww.e- travelguide.info Tampere, Finland Source: www.pinguim.net Dortmund, Germany Source: wm2006.deutschland.d e

16. Summing Up…. Place matters because: Economic and social assets interact differently in different ‘places’ affected by factors such as history, proximity to other places, connectivity to wider markets, availability of knowledge assets, industrial structure and functionality of place –This affects both the asset stocks (competitive strengths) and flow (economic and social dynamism) –It is important in addressing market failures and realising economic and social potential Lancashire is interesting because it does not have the conventional city region characteristics. It has three distinct areas – Blackpool and the coastal area, Preston and East Lancashire. Also, the main direction of flows (indication of functionality) are north south not east west But these places do have an interdependence with each other which is important for their long term future. Medium-sized Cities like Preston and towns like Blackpool, Blackburn and Burnley cannot succeed by operating on their own

17. PART THREE: Levering Agglomerative Growth Network of Travel to work movements in the North Source: Roles and Economic Functions of the City Regions of the North, The Northern Way

18. Labour market links – London and South East Network of travel to work movements in the GSE Source: Peter Hall/SEEDA, 2005

19. Map of Net Private Sector Job Creation 1998-2008

20. Map of Percentage Private Sector Job Growth 1998-2008

21. Do we see the world as ‘flat’ or ‘spiky’? The world is ‘flat’ - national or local institutional solutions The world is ‘spiky’ – single ‘spike’ London and South East The world is ‘spiky’ – multiple spikes – London, Manchester, Glasgow etc Because it might affect our view on how the economic growth agenda should be delivered…..

22. Private Sector Jobs Growth in English Cities in Profile – 1998-2008

23. London Reading Brighton Hastings Manchester Chester Preston BlackpoolBlackburn Burnley TTW area Towns and cities with higher increasing return industrial sectors Towns and cities with lower increasing return industrial sectors Milton Keynes Cambridge City links – GSE and North West

24. London Reading Brighton Hastings Leeds Tyneside TTW area Towns and cities (or parts of) with higher increasing return industrial sectors Towns and cities with lower increasing return industrial sectors Milton Keynes Cambridge Newcastle Sunderland Teeside Hull Sheffield York Bradford Kirklees Barnsley Wakefield Harrogate Rotherham Doncaster Policy Implications Scale matters Internal - structural External - relationships Political Leadership

25. Places are different … But… establishing functional economic linkages is key Labour market patterns reflect other factors: Industrial structure Housing quality Skills and Earnings Deprivation Also, connectivity and possibly ‘quality of place’

26. City Relationships Families – Roles of different cities City Relationships Family: Labour Market Links Skills Earnings SectorHouse pricesDeprivation ResidentWorkplace Isolated ●●● Traditional ● Poor scores Independent ●●● Diverse ●●● Good scores ●● Mix ●● Mixed scores Interdependent ●●● Complementary ●●● Good scores ●● Mix ●● Mixed scores Dependent ●●● ●● Complementary ●●● Good scores ●● Mix ●● Mixed scores ●●● Traditional ● Poor scores

27. Policy Levers, depending on direction of travel

28. Concluding Hypothesis Sustainable economic growth can be generated by strengthening the economic links between economic centres and adjacent centres Within as well as between city-regions Solutions will vary in proportions as places and opportunities vary – cannot “cut and paste” (A. Thierstein et al) Drivers of change will include: –Labour market links –Transport (international, inter-city, functionality of place, geography) –Skills –Industrial composition –Investment in Business clusters –Supply chains –Quality of place Political leadership is vital to overcome barriers Long term consistency is important