Sunak's Harold Wilson act is a recipe for economic disaster

A “THREATENING situation”. That is how Birmingham was described by the incoming Labour government led by Harold Wilson in 1964. Unemployment in Birmingham and the West Midlands was virtually non-existent in the post-war period and average household incomes were well above the national average.

- Ben Ramanauskas

However, rather than recognising this as the remarkable achievement that it was, the government saw it as a problem. It felt that Birmingham should not be able to become too successful as that might exacerbate the economic decline of other regions. As such, it was decreed that people should be forced out of the city centre lest Birmingham became even more successful.

Fast forward almost 50 years to present day Manchester. Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his Conservative Party Conference speech last week to channel his inner Harold Wilson by announcing his ambition to shift the UK’s economic geography away from cities and towards towns.

As someone who grew up on a council estate in Huddersfield (the same town as Wilson), I know all too well that many towns have so much untapped potential and have been neglected by successive governments. Unfortunately, any plan for regional growth that ignores cities is destined to fail.

Cities tend to be highly productive. This is due to a confluence of factors flowing from the benefits of agglomeration. The fact that there are so many productive people living and working in close proximity to each other helps to make them even more productive. This is particularly true for large cities such as London.