Liverpool is leading a group of eight major cities across England in a bid to encourage growth and support business development.

The collective will be working together to attract investment to into the North of the capital.

The eight cities involved include Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol, all of which say they are “underperforming” by international standards.

They believe that with freedom from governmental restraints, they could generate more than one million jobs and contribute over £220bn to the economy by 2030.

The council leaders of each of the cities wrote in a letter to the government:

“We all know that London needs to succeed, but we also need to do more unlock the economic potential of other cities. We have all welcomed the City and Growth Deals.

“We now need to go a lot further. Devolution is happening for Scotland and Wales. It’s time for more devolution directly to cities, economic powerhouses who together deliver far more for our economy.

“Local economies matter; through them we can raise our national output. That relies on a fundamental shift away from centralised government. Instead of cities bidding against each other, we must do more to empower democratic and business leaders to work together, to take on the international competition.”

The councils are aiming to create ‘innovation growth hubs’ in each city to help  support businesses growth and productivity.

They are also looking for more control over skills and employment services in order to tend to local needs more effectively.

Letter to the government

The letter adds:

“This is not just a simplistic call for more investment, it is a call for flexibility in decision making, to commission locally, to get solutions closer to the problems.”

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson commented:

“I know my city far better than anyone in Whitehall and if Liverpool was able to retain more of the taxes it raises we could use them to generate the right skills to enable people to get jobs, attract more investment and give more support to business.

“At the moment 95 percent of taxes raised in Liverpool are sent to government when cities in Germany, Sweden, Canada and the US keep up to 10 times more. We need more decentralisation if we are to compete globally.”

Source: Liverpool Vision