46441 CITY·REGIONS: EMERGING LESSONS FROM ENGLAND Kieran Larkin and Adam Marshall, Centre for Cities (UK) Welcome to DIRECTIONS in Urban Development Tlle World Bank's Urban D0.v(!loprnpnL Unit is p leas('d 1.0 I.au nch a IlC) 'N Issues Note S('ri e s undl!r th e titl f! DIREL'TIOI\lS l it riri>cw f)Pf 1plopm(mt . This issue fo cllses on ,ity Reg ions and is inte nd ed, like <111 fu tuw issues , to provid e a forum to s hare and pxc hange new .id e a s. inn oval.i o n s, good prac- lice and lessons leanp d in th e fi Ec! ld of urhan deve lopment.. DIRECTION , will p rov.id c an opportUlli ty to a cl dn' s~ in a I.inwly and fo .use d manne r e m e rg ing tre nds and to pi cs of relevanc(' to cit.i e s, towns, nati on al gClVt'rnlll ' nts and d evr!lopnl!'nt. agenci (!s as Lhey fac e th e c lialleHge s or url.iani7.aLio n. Thi s scries will dra\y a tte ntion to IWW rese;lrc h a nd p o.licy issues with refer n c(~ s and reso urce s for re searchers , polic~' :malysts , and jlr:1ct.ilio n e rs alik > wh o \" ill wish to fLu·th er e xpl on~ t h e s ~, topi c .. A. is the i:J se in t hi s iss u e, we a nU c ipata that many o f t.h e ideas, resca rcJl , and do(; urnt:ltt'd experi ~nces pre se nte d w ill he by g u('s \' contrih((Lors (rom ci ties and t(lwns across the d . velopins world as we ll. a s think-t.anks, (l<~v ' IOPlll nl agt''! nd es, p racti tioners, and nthers who share ou r p:lssion of fightin g poverty ~nd und e rst:md th e imporr,a n ce of a gl oba l exchangf; of Id eas a nd good practices. /{(].til eriw -) SiNTO Vi ce Pre sident, Susta inah l(' De velopIl1('nl. Th e World Ba nk Summary L ' V tra1:ni ng. They captuxf! u 'rban hinterlands, as well as core C1:tieS. The emergence oj ctty-regwns 'm Englan l offers This n.ote explains 1) the emC" rgence oj city-regions some use /ullessol1sJ01' World Bank parlners in 'in England, 2) the c?,arent policyjmmewoYk in d eveloping countries. The City-Region approach, Eng/.and, 3) a. case study qf Greater Manchestel; q as apphed in En. land touches 'upon i88ues 4) CUy-Region Contracts as (T. policy tool to codify ClF decentmli.z(Tfion. intergovprnmental/isen} in tergovernmental instittf.tional arrangemf"nts, relations, governance, and the need /0 realign and 5) tmnsJera.ble lessons. outdated adminis/rrtl:ive arrangements wiJ.h a metropolitan area 's econo'lnieJooJ.prinl" among Introduction other highly relCIJflnltopic;s.fiJ r 'rarridly 'Ilmanizing cities 'in developing coanlries. Tn 2008, the world's urban population topped 50% for t.h e As a concept, OitY-Tegions are designed to pro- first time l . Cit.y econornies have spilled over tradition al mote cTOss-boundary collaboration across large boundaries in both the develop ed and the developing nrban areas. They aim to facilitate horizontal world, leaving local leaders to face the ch allenge of co- and vertical co-ordination between multiple ordinating policy across multiple territorial jurisdictions. jurisdictions. They advance the concept qf an City-regions drive regional a nd natiomll economies . appropriate spatial scaleior econornic develop- In EngJ;lOd, fi8 percent. of people live in recognised ment/unctions s1J.Gh (1,) transport, ho'U.si,ng and cities and 63 percent of people work in them. But the • THE WORLD BAN K URBAN DEVELOPMENT UNIT I OCTOBER 2008 DIRECTIONS IN URBAN DEVELOPM ENT fun ctional econ om ies of cities stretch far beyond their English local au thorities have relatively extensive poli tical boundaries. Nearly 75 percent of England's statutory powers, but these a re circumscribed by central population lives in city-regions, and nearly 80 percent of government directives, targets, and limited control over jobs are located in them .2 funding. Most mban authorities get approximately 80% of Fragmented, mu ltiple governance structures across their funding-with conditions-from the centre. Despite la rge urban areas in Engla nd have led to poli cy co-ordi- rh etorical commitments to devolution and recent moves nati on problems. National, regiona l, sub-regiollal and to increase local fin ancial fle xibility at the margins, cities' loca l levels of gove rnment h ave led to a co nfusing array ability to initiate and sustain la rge-scale infrastructure of policy interventions. And collabo ration between loca l and economic development projects remains limited. autho rities, across real economi c areas, has been li m- The ci ty-region concept has emerged, in part, in ited. This has unde rmined effective decision-maki ng and response to the shortcom ings of the Government's eco nomi c development. regional development <'lnd devolu tion effor ts. City- City-regio nal arrangements have recently eme rged regions are seen as a way of imp rov ing the economic in England, in respo nse to these d ifficulties. They aim performance of the eight Northern cities 4 They featured to deliver se rvices such as transport and training, across pro min ently in th e government-commissioned State of groups of municipalities within a single, economically the Engli sh Cities Repor t (2006) , which secured cross- in teg rated urban area. departmental recognition of cities as the "motors" of the This note exam ines the development of city-reg ional national economy. governance in Engla nd. It ou tlines the ration ale a nd policy fra mework underpinning city-regions in England Under·bounded cities It focuses on th e case of Greater Mancheste r, which has recen tly created new cross-boundary governa nce arrange- Whereas the Engli sh region s an~ se en as t.oo la rge t.o ments. Ancl it draws out some lesso ns for the World tackle the issu es facing individual urban econ om ies, Bank's partners in developing countries- p ropos ing the existing city authorities are too small. Eng land' s citi es use of City-Region Contracts to improve cross-boundary are in effect 'under-bounded' . For example , the City of urban governan ce , strategy and service delivery. Manches ter has 450,000 resid e nts, out of a metropolitan populat.ion of over 2.5 million. Newcastle-upon-Tyne has Emergence of City-Regions in England on ly 260,000 residents, out of a metropolitan populat.ion of 800 ,000 The city-regional approach in England has emerged in The administrative boundaries of England's cities response to excessive centralisation, linder-bounded fail to capture the 'geography of everyday Iife'5_that. is, cen tral citi es, poor horizontal co-ordin <'l tion around t.hp. scale at which people li vp. and work, and t.hp. scale economic developme n t, and the changing geography of at which husiness supply ch ains ann labour marke t.s England's urban eco ll omies. City-regio ns aim to match ope rate. City-regi ons h elp fit policies to an urba n area's up the delivery of econ omic development with the func- real 'econom ic fo otprint'5, a nd overcome co-ordination tional economic area in and arou nd a city. The bottom-up difficulties. But they are see n by [[\ ,my as an extra t.i er of acco untability of city-reg ional structures is derived from governance, betwee n the local and regional layers. the elected leaders of their compon ent local autho rities . Bu t city-regi ons are difficult. a nd co mpl ex. They challenge the loc:al identit.ies of residents and politi- Poor horizontal C(J-ordinatlon cians, requiring th em to em brace a wider econo mic English lo r.al aut.horit.ies have tranit.ion a lly been poor at area a nd brand. City-regions do not sit easily with exist- co-o rninat.ing polici es and act.ivity across council bound- ing region<'l l governance arrangements, for example a ries. TJntil recent.ly, local politicians and offi cials stood Regional Developm e nt Agen cies. And the boundaries of t.o gain more by deliverin g services within their borders, ci ty-regions are often unclear, or "fu zzy". rat.her t.han by co-ordina.t.ing housing, tran sport., t.raining and regeneration across a wider urban area. Institutional Centralisation in cen tives have te nded to worl< against cross-boundary policy management a nd deli ve ry. Until recently, for r~ngland has hi stori cally been a centraliscn COUll try- example, the Audit Commission has measured and man- with power conce ntrated in ministries in London. ln aged local au thorities' performance in isolati on. art effort to move so me econom ic developme nt powers away from the cen tre, th e Labour government created nine Regional Developm ent Agen cies (RDAs) in 1999. Changing economic geogrdphy Although RDAs have he lped to introduce a stronger spa- The: cit.y-f(~ gion concept. ha.s gained trac t.i on be:callsc a t.iil.l Nexl. ;l ratE' , Working age people on out of work benefits in worst per- stepsjor city Tegions, London: :\'LGN forming neighbourhoods, Proportion of adults qualifiE'd to Level 1 Northern Way (2004) Norlhern Way Growth Stmtegy. This 2 or Iligher, Proportion of adults qualified to Level 4 or higher, defines eight 'city-regio ns ' - Liverpoo l. Manchester, Central Stock of VAT registered companies. Percentage of non car morn - Lancas hire , ShelJield, Leeds, [-lull and Humber Ports, Te es Valley ing peak journeys to the regional centre. Net additiona l homes and Tyne and Wear. provid ed. " Harding el al. (2006) A FYa'((l.8w01k.fo'r citY-'regions, London : I!lI n ,June 2008, Greater Manchester received approval for £1.5 ODP\1 billion in gr. -= a: 1 :1 .a c... The \ii(~ ws t'xpn.:sscd in DJnSCTI()i\'S in Urban DeV( ~ I<)pm e nt :Il'l~ lhuse of the {luLhors and do nol necessarily re fl ect those of the World Bank . 6