EUKN - United Kingdom - Mapping city-regions

Mapping city-regions - UK

Introduction

This working paper considers how England might be split up into city-regions based on labour and housing markets. It focuses on Bristol and Manchester as practical examples.

Description

The paper explores five different approaches to the definition of city-regions:

labour-market definitions, based on travel to work areas
housing-market definitions - those areas in which households search for residential locations
economic activity-based definitions
service-district definitions - those regions from which users of city-based goods and services are drawn
administrative definitions

It explores the latter three approaches in the contexts of Greater Bristol and Greater Manchester.

Background information

The focus on the city-region, a central urban core together with its commuter hinterland, has grown over recent years, and in particular its relevance as an administrative and strategic entity. Calls for regional and sub-regional reform have been voiced partly as a response to economic globalisation and the erosion of the power and scope of nation-states, and partly to the growth in powers assumed by supra-national bodies such as the European Union. This is one in a set of working papers on a framework for city-regions providing an evidence base if a national policy for city-regions is to be developed.

Methodology

The Framework for City-Regions study is being delivered in several stages:

identifying the footprints of cities through data such as travel-to-work, travel-to-travel, travel-to-shop and travel-to-entertainment
reviewing the key drivers of city-regional growth
assessing the potential added value of a city-regional approach
exploring the lessons learnt through the reform and delivery of urban-regional policies elsewhere in Europe.

This working paper puts forward two criteria to determine alternative definitions of commuting-based city-regions.

Conclusions

It may be most appropriate to think of a small number of genuinely significant urban-based city-regions which give prominence to a few fairly large core centres. In which case it may not be appropriate to consider formal administrative arrangements which demarcate city-regions, but rather to encourage the development of more informal cross-authority collaboration. Evidence gathered points to the social capital in big cities growing in importance as a determinant of business location and business success. With knowledge-based activities gravitating ever more strongly to the big cities, their location in the cities has significant city-region impacts in terms of labour catchments and many elements of producer service activities. There is logic in moving towards a city-region geometry for strategic planning and also for other types of service such as skills, cultural services and housing.

Contact info

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, now Department for Communities and Local Government
Phone: +44 20 7944 4400
contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk

Publication date

01/02/2006

Project finished

Researcher

Brian Robson et al.

Links

Department for Communities and Local Government

A framework for city regions. Working paper 1 Mapping city-regions (PDF, Eng, 3.3 MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Keywords

Urban economy