Is there a new spatial awareness in Whitehall?

Charlotte Alldritt
16 March 2015

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Northern Powerhouse

The UK is failing relative to our competitors in the quantity and quality of our infrastructure. Cities hold the key to investment says Charlotte Alldritt.

“We haven’t seen another government focus so much on infrastructure investment for quite some time,” said one speaker at a recent conference on Northern infrastructure. Whether or not this is true, the hope that this government and the next understand the urgency for higher infrastructure investment is one to cling to.

As the World Bank and others have shown, the UK is failing relative to our competitors in the quantity and quality of our infrastructure.  While central government investment is due to increase over the next few years, much of this will be focussed on energy; investment of £110bn is needed in electricity infrastructure alone by 2020 to meet increase in demand, to provide back-up capacity, and to combat the scheduled closure of one fifth of existing capacity (NAO, 2014). 

"As we get closer to the election, it is unlikely technical debates about the infrastructure appraisal or city-regional devolution will be headline issues"

At the RSA City Growth Commission we pushed early on for a greater emphasis on investment in connectivity, particularly transport links between our northern metros where the untapped agglomeration potential is huge. 

Our analysis found that inter-metro commuting across the Northern Powerhouse increased by 21% between 2001 and 2011. The daily flow from South Yorkshire to Greater Manchester increased 110% over the same period - 19,000 extra daily commuters.

The Chancellor was persuaded, and the development of HS3 (unlike its sister, HS2) shows government is starting to look for answers to at least the right questions: what infrastructure investment do we need to make this place more productive and economically competitive? 

However, while the ‘Devolution Deal’ between HM Treasury and Greater Manchester shows that Whitehall may have started to think about the spatial dimension of economic development and public service reform, cities continue to be frustrated by fragmented processes and bureaucracy. 

"Government is starting to look for answers to at least the right questions: what infrastructure investment do we need to make this place more productive and economically competitive?"

Instead, cities need to be able to plan and sequence their investment over long periods of time, meeting the priorities of their functional economic areas. They also need to have greater financial flexibility to pool and leverage mixed sources of finance, including the private sector, central government, local levies and EU funds. 

As we get closer to the election, it is unlikely technical debates about the infrastructure appraisal or city-regional devolution will be headline issues. However, they underpin many salient policy areas, from jobs and deficit reduction to public health and wellbeing.  We’ve seen what cities can do to demonstrate their capacity for sophisticated collaboration and drive effective policy and delivery. 

Whether in the North (e.g. Transport for the North), the Midlands (e.g. Midlands Connect), the Severn region or London and the South East, now is the time for them to take a leading role in determining the infrastructure that will create a thriving system of cities across the UK. 

Charlotte Alldritt is Director of Public Services and Communities at the RSA and Secretary to the City Growth Commission