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Bristol and Cardiff united would raise ?700m
Combining strength of Bristol and Cardiff would create an extra £782million for the regional economy, a major report into the role of cities has said.
The RSA City Growth Commission said after a year of consultation that devolving powers on tax and spending to the 15 largest cities in Britain could boost economic growth by £79bn a year by 2030.
The commission, chaired by economist Jim O’Neill, said that shifting power away from London to cities would drive up the UK’s long-term rate of economic growth.
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“There needs to be a radical reshaping of the UK’s political economy, with our metros given sufficient decision-making powers and financial flexibilities in order to become financially self-sustainable,” the commission said.
But O’Neill added that cities combining their forces – termed ‘agglomeration’ – was a “huge influence” on his thinking.
“If our closely geographically located cities can have the best transport between them, allowing their current, and potential future consumers and producers to feel as though they are all part of one urban mass, then the benefits that typically accrue to London could be repeated elsewhere,” he said.
“In my view, some devolution to our cities is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the delivery of stronger trend economic growth nationally.”
The report says that we as a country are living in an “urban age”, where cities are increasingly powerful.
But if the 15 major cities in the UK were combined into five ‘super city regions’, then hundreds of millions of pounds in economic growth could be expected.
The Severn region of Bristol and Cardiff would make an extra £782m in gross value added economic growth.
This pales into comparison though with the Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire,
South Yorkshire and Merseyside area, which the report said would be given a £19bn boost by combining.
The report comes a week after mayor George Ferguson called for Bristol and Cardiff to work together to attract jobs and investment from the “overheating” London area.
Speaking at a conference in Wales, Ferguson said there was an opportunity for the two cities to set aside competition between them and create “a really sustainable city region”.
But yesterday there was a a clash between the two city airports, with the boss of Bristol Airport claiming Cardiff Airport would have a “significant advantage” over its rivals if the Welsh government won devolved power to set air passenger duty.
It would mean the airport could cut or abolish the duty, resulting in potentially cheaper flights.
The idea has been rejected by the UK government under current plans to devolve financial powers to Wales.
However, the four main parties in Wales have called for it to be reconsidered.
Picture: FatManPhoto / Shutterstock
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