Member Article

Leeds and York leading the way as Yorkshire’s cities come under scrutiny in Cities Outlook 2015

Leeds and York have stood out amongst other Yorkshire cities which have reportedly lagged behind the growth of other UK cities in the past decade, according to the Cities Outlook 2015.

Leeds and York have seen an increase in business stock of 17% and 16% respectively. However this growth had not been matched by an increase in jobs.

The report said that both cities had “demonstrated resilience” with Leeds in particular having a “strong public-private jobs ratio”.

Grimsby and Hull have struggled through the recession according to the report.

Grimsby lost 7% of its net jobs and 6% of its net businesses, alongside a population growth of just 1%, compared to the UK average growth of 7%.

The Cities Outlook report from think-tank Centre for Cities, which researches the economic performance of the United Kingdom’s 64 largest cities.

The report has highlighted the gap between Britain’s best and worst-performing cities, which has widened since 2004.

According to Cities Outlook, for every 12 new jobs created between 2004 and 2013 in cities in the South of England, only one was created in cities throughout the rest of Great Britain.

Leader of Leeds City Council councillor Keith Wakefield said: “It is a fantastic achievement for Leeds to have had the highest percentage increase of new private sector jobs of any of the core cities even outperforming London in 2012/13.

“While this is very welcome, the report as a whole does highlight areas Leeds needs to improve such as inequality in our city and the need to reduce our levels of carbon emissions.

“We are working hard in these areas, and as suggested in the report devolution of powers and responsibilities would enable us to make major improvements to boost our economy and people’s lives, and to tackle the problems being caused by the continuing north-south economic divide and the two-tier economy it has caused in the UK.”

Andrew Carter, acting chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “This report throws down the gauntlet for all parties to turn their recent interest and pledges around cities and devolution into a clear plan to grow jobs and businesses, and improve quality of life throughout the United Kingdom.”

“The stark picture the report paints of the enormous gap in the fortunes of UK cities over 10 years underlines why a ‘steady as she goes’ approach must be scrapped.”

The report added: “It continues to rely heavily on its public sector employers and has struggled to develop new private sector industries to withstand the decline both in public sector jobs and in traditional ports and fishing industries.

“Similar trends explain Hull’s difficulty; although Hull has seen a net increase in businesses of 5%, this is just a third of the UK average for cities.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .