What is meant by ‘place-shaping’?

PTP - LSP Practitioner Event, 11th May 2007

Mary Sumner House, SW1Paul Hildreth

Policy Fellow, SURF at Salford University and Advisor to CLG

Why place matters

What do you most identify with Blackpool, Preston, Blackburn and Burnley?

a) Four local authoritiesb) One city and three townsc) A ‘city-region’d) Remote places somewhere north of Watforde) A birthplace of the industrial revolutionf) Somewhere to go for my summer holidays

Preston

Blackpool

Blackburn

Burnley

Why places are different (1)

1. History is important. Future economic development is a ‘path dependent’ process

York, UKSource: www.chromavision.co.uk

Cotton industry, Burnley Source: www.weaverstriangle.co.uk

Stoke-on-Trent Source: www.ceramike.com/stoke

Why places are different (2)

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Glasgow Edinburgh

London

Birmingham

Manchester Liverpool

Leeds

25+ Links

20+ Links

15+ Links

Bristol

2. Industrial structure of the economy.

How different sectors relate differently to place

- Producer services - Advance manufacturing - Consumer services

Links between financial services firms with bases in Manchester and Leeds and between places with 15 or more overall links

Source: Harding and Robson

Why places are different (3)

3. Proximity and economic relationship to other cities may be important, due to inter-dependencies between cities within the national urban hierarchy

Complex network of commuting flows in the London city-region

Source: Hal and Pain, Polynet

Source: Lancashire Economic Partnership – chart by GVA Grimley

Why places are different (4)

4. Connectivity is important for success in the knowledge economy

• International

• Nationally

• Regionally

• Locally

5. Availability of knowledge assets

ABCs

Why places are different (5)

Stoke-on-Trent

Source: Google Earth6. Functionality of

place

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 Sea

Note – brown arrows indicate direction of main travel-to-work movements

M55

M61

To Manchester Airport

Central Lancashire – the ‘dynamics of place’

Different challenges in different places Regeneration challenge

1. Intense and comprehensive

Transformation of failing area and economy

2. Divided economy

Combination of economic success and social inequality in close proximity

3. Isolated pockets

Maintaining sustainable economic achievement under pressure to grow

City typology Industrial

Gateway

Regional services*

Heritage/tourism*

City in city-region

University knowledge

Neighbourhoods/physical

Failing neighbourhoods, low housing demand and poor urban environment

Inner city decline and social housing estates alongside wealthier suburbs/city centre renaissance

Dominant private housing/quality physical environment with pockets of concentrated deprivation

Connectivity City and region poorly connected locally and nationally

Better connected: good region and city connections but poor local ones

Poorly connected neighbourhoods in well-connected region

Economy/firms Historically goods based economy, low level services, high public sector, low start-up rates

Post-industrial with growing knowledge-based producer services economy

Dominant in high knowledge-based producer services

Labour market Low skilled, more no qualifications, higher inactivity, low productivity, low aspirations

Highly skilled/graduate workforce combined with low qualifications/low activity rates

High skilled graduate workforce, high activity rates, high productivity

* Note – Regional services and heritage/tourism cities can vary considerably in their performance. Weak cities in these typologies can come within category 1. (e.g. Blackpool), whilst stronger ones come closer to category 3. (e.g. York)

The Big Picture

Gateway

Industrial

Heritage/tourism

Regional Services

City in large city-region

University/ knowledge

e.g. Hull, Grimsby

e.g. Bradford, Blackburn, Barnsley, Stoke-on-Trent

e.g. Blackpool, Worthing, Bath

e.g. Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Gloucester, Norwich

e.g. Reading, Aldershot

e.g. Cambridge, Oxford

Regional trends towards…..

North and Midlands

Lower knowledge-intensive employment

Higher primary employment

Fewer graduates

More with no formal qualifications

Lowest pay

Labour productivity is low

South

Higher knowledge-intensive employment

Higher service employment

More graduates

Fewer with no formal qualifications

Highest pay

Labour productivity is high

Place-shaping

• Places are different

• Evidence to inform aspiration

• Internal and external focus

• Integrating different concepts of ‘place’

– ‘where I live’ (neighbourhood)

– ‘how I am governed’ (local authority area)

– ‘how the economy works’ (city-region or sub-

region)

• Governance challenges

– Horizontal

– Vertical

Chester Source:nighteyes_27.tripod.com

Cambridge Source: www.cam.ac.uk

Bristol