Brighton & Hove economy hit hard by Covid Challenge says Centre for Cities
Centre for Cities thinktank outlines what support Government needs to give to support city economies post lockdown
In their recent report of the impact of Covid on UK Cities, Centre for Cities has placed Brighton in a group of previously strong city economies which has been hard hit by Covid. Joining Brighton and Hove on teh list: Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Crawley, Edinburgh, Leicester, London, Slough and Southend.
Benefits of Exporting:
However, the report also highlights the benefits of exporting to a place’s economic resilience saying, “The more exporting jobs a place has, and the more productive these exporting jobs are, the more vibrant is its local labour market, with more job opportunities and consequently fewer people in need of unemployment-related benefits. Places like London, Reading, Brighton or Cambridge have more exporting jobs, while places that needed to level up before the pandemic like Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Birmingham have a weaker exporting base and consequently fewer higher-paying employment opportunities.”
The Centre for cities report highlights a four point plan to support places to bounce back from Covid by:
“1. Boosting Universal Credit: As people are made redundant and lose income they cut their spending, reducing even further the amount of money circulating in local economies. This has a knock-on negative effect for the economy, putting even more jobs at risk. To minimise this, the Government should make permanent the temporary £20 uplift to Universal Credit and consider increasing it to be in line with other welfare states in Europe.
2. Supporting workers until social restrictions are lifted: The CJRS has been crucial in supporting workers since March 2020, preventing even higher rises in unemployment and ensuring money kept circulating in the economy. As such, as long as lockdowns and other forms of social distancing restrictions such as the tier system continue to be in place, the Government should continue to offer the current furlough scheme to workers.
3. Supporting people who have lost their job to retrain: The complete shutdown of certain sectors of the economy makes it even more difficult for the people who have lost their job to find new opportunities. While it is welcome to see that the recently introduced Life Skills Guarantee offers a free college course for anyone without A-levels or equivalent qualifications, the Government should extend this initiative and offer free courses to anyone who has lost their job in the past year, even those who already have A-level or equivalent qualifications.
4. Consider a ‘Spend out to help out’ voucher: Once the vaccine is rolled out, social restrictions lifted and the economy reopens, the Government will need to consider whether additional support is needed to encourage people to go out and spend. If required this could build on the ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme from last summer and offer each adult a ‘Spend out to help out’ voucher of £100 to be used on the high street.
Nationally, the Centre for Cities say the Government should deliver on the levelling up agenda, by:
1. Investing in skills: To level up, economically weaker parts of the country need to become more attractive to high-productivity businesses. The single most important change that can help them achieve this goal is investing in the skills of the people currently living in their local area, in particular those currently without any formal qualifications. To do so, the Government should boost investment in further education and set out how it will stimulate take-up among adults.
2. Creating jobs: While improving skills can open up more opportunities for people, for them to fully utilise their skills in their local area there needs to be adequate The Government should press ahead on supporting the creation of jobs in the green economy, for example via retrofitting homes. In addition, the Government should look at supporting the creation of more jobs in sectors of high demand such as social care and education, which are spread across the country.
3. Improving city centres: Alongside these jobs, cities and large towns in need of levelling up need more high-skilled, well-paid jobs and high- productivity businesses. Notwithstanding the pandemic, these types of jobs and businesses tend to locate in city As such Government should support cities and large towns that need to level up to improve their city centres’ offer post-Covid by creating a City Centre Productivity Fund for places to access.
4. Investing in transport: Congestion is increasingly a barrier to further growth in the largest cities outside London. As previous work by Centre for Cities has found, improving investment in the transport infrastructure of these places would help create job opportunities in the short term and tackle congestion and pollution challenges and stimulate economic growth in the longer-term. This will require both investment from national government and action from local government, such as the introduction of congestion charges in city centres.
5. Investing in innovation: Innovation plays a central role in the creation of strong The Government has signalled that it is to increase spending on R&D outside of the Greater South East – in 2021 it should set out exactly how it is going to do this, and what results it expects to achieve.
6. Pressing ahead with devolution: Ultimately, each place has its own specific challenges which are best addressed at the local level. As such, the Government should press ahead with devolution, hand powers related to economic growth to local areas and give them the opportunity to raise their own taxes.”
To view the data, check out https://www.centreforcities.org/city-monitor/