Member Article

North challenged to improve its cities

A challenge to raise the quality of places - in particular homes - as part of an economic growth strategy was yesterday issued to towns and cities across the north of the UK. The Northern Way, the collaboration between the three Northern Regional Development Agencies, Yorkshire Forward, Northwest Regional Development Agency and One NorthEast, has released a report entitled Shaping the North’s Cities for Growth: An Agenda for the Next Decade. It aims to provide an overview into how the cities of the North need to improve their residential offer.

The report claims that a new emphasis is needed to ensure inner urban areas, suburbs and former industrial towns in the North are transformed into attractive places to live and contribute more to accommodate sustainable housing growth. In particular the Northern Way called for the new National Homes agency to work in partnership with regional development agencies and local government to help deliver locally based strategies.

James Cruddas, who has led the Northern Way’s work on sustainable communities, said: “While substantial progress has been made, the North’s residential offer still doesn’t match our economic potential: range and quality are often mediocre, and where the offer is better it comes at a price people can’t afford. The North is increasingly struggling to provide a residential offer that meets the aspirations of key economic groups.

“In the next decade tens of thousands of knowledge-driven jobs are to be created in the North’s city regions. In fact the North’s cities are in a better position than at any time since the end of the 19th century to advance the economy of the UK. Raising the quality of place, in particular the residential offer, in the North’s city regions is essential to attracting and retaining a new cadre of workers to fill these knowledge-driven jobs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .