building the northern powerhouse: lessons from the rhine-ruhr and randstad: paul swinney, centre for...
TRANSCRIPT
Building the Northern Powerhouse:Lessons from the Rhine-Ruhr and Randstad
Paul SwinneyCentre for Cities
@paul_swinney
The Northern Powerhouse: Randstad and Rhine Ruhr Mark II?
Fact 1: The Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr are more productive than the
Northern Powerhouse, and this is driven by their cities
This focus is justified – they both out perform the North of England
But both areas don’t act as single economies: the economy is spiky…
…as is the case in the North…
Source: Census 2011
The Randstad and Rhine Ruhr perform well because of their cities
Fact 2: Commuting links show city
regions to be distinct, rather than operating as part of a
larger, single economy
Commuting containment is similar across city regions…
…And there is little commuting between city regions
Source: Census 2011
Fact 3: Public transport usage is similar across the three areas, but the
modes used are different
Public transport is similar too, and is fairly low…
…But the mode of public transport used is different
Fact 4: It is frequency, rather than
speed, that separates the rail networks
Rail connections aren’t vastly worse in the North
Fact 5: Neither the Randstad or Rhine-Ruhr have institutions that plan
or manage activity or investment at this scale
If the North was a country, it would be the ninth largest in Europe
Source: Eurostat
Country Population (2015)
Germany 81,198,000
France 66,415,000
Italy 60,796,000
Rest of UK 49,705,000
Spain 46,450,000
Poland 38,006,000
Romania 19,871,000
Netherlands 16,901,000
North of England 15,170,000
Belgium 11,258,000
Implications for policy
Policy needs to allow cities to make more of agglomeration…
…And this should be the responsibility of the new city-region mayors
Implications
• The key learning from the Randstad and Rhine Ruhr is that they make the most of their cities
• For the North to fire again it needs to do the same
• The devolution agenda offers the way to do this
…by focusing on skills…