Warrington and Preston named most improved cities

LANCASHIRE Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has welcomed a report by Centre for Cities which named Preston as the second most-improved city in Britain based on its economic performance since 1901.

The report looked at a range of measures including the skill levels of residents, unemployment rates and the number of new businesses, comparing them to figures in the 1901 census. Warrington finished top of the table, while Preston was second and Bolton fifth. Liverpool finished third from bottom.

The think-tank argued that the thing which set the fastest-growing cities apart was an investment in infrastructure.

Alexandra Jones, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “History tells us that failure to invest in city economies has long term effects for the UK economy.

“The Government needs to preference the policies that support cities to grow – skills and transport in particular.

“If the Government holds back on investing in these fundamental policies now, history shows that it will pay later.”

Edwin Booth, chairman of the Lancashire Economic Partnership, said: “What this report shows is the importance of a diverse economy with highly-skilled jobs and a developed infrastructure. The creation of the LEP has given us the mechanism to ensure that Preston and the whole of Lancashire continue to prosper for the next hundred years.

The report also highlighted the significant changes which have taken place in larger cities. In Liverpool, for instance, almost a third (32.9%) of employees worked in the transport sector 100 years ago, compared with just 5.3% today. Back then, it ranked eighth out of 57 cities for business start-up rates. Today, it ranks 50th out of 64.

In Manchester, meanwhile, four people worked in manufacturing for every one in services in 1901. Today, for every manufacturing employee there are nine people working in services. The percentage of people working in professional services has also ballooned from 2.4% to 25.9%.