This is very interesting from Alan Harding. It makes a compelling case that effective subnational government is associated with the better distribution of the proceeds of growth. How does this work within city-regions rather than between them?
Theory tells us that the big employment centres in major conurbations generate ‘escalator’ and ‘fountain’ effects. Their well-rewarded jobs offer in-migrants and residents alike the chance to escalate quickly upward along their chosen career paths. Then, when things like green space, affordable homes and good schools become more important to household plans, the fountain effect sees them migrate in search of a better trade-off between work and home life.
In London’s case, the fountain mainly scatters people within an eighty-mile radius of Trafalgar Square. Around Manchester it serves southern city-regional towns and suburbs and leafy north Cheshire perfectly well, but head north from Albert Square and it quickly peters out. For all its recent job-creation, Manchester as a regional centre doesn’t drive prosperity across its own city-region, let alone the north of England.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-next-uk-government-has-an-opportunity-to-finally-recognise-the-devolution-dividend/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Mark Carrigan 