Firing the Engines, A New Strategy for ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor’ – Donald Anderson & Steven Purcell

As former leaders of Scotland’s two principal cities and most important economies, we think the time has come for them to have directly elected Mayors that work together formally to promote ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor’ as a means of maximising jobs and wealth creation in Scotland. Here we set out why.

We consider ourselves some of the luckiest people on the planet. We both had the opportunity to lead two of the finest cities on the planet at crucial times in their development, and we believe that we left them in better shape to face the future. We’re also fiercely proud of how both cities have continued to make progress in the face of the huge challenges they’ve faced in the years since we stepped down.

Those challenges have included one of the biggest economic downturns in history, a period of austerity that undermined prosperity and success for more than a decade, a poorly thought out, and even more poorly implemented Brexit, and of course most recently the Covid pandemic that closed down communities, took lives and damaged city economies throughout the world.

We worked together to share ideas and promote joint activity between these two great cities by creating a formal joint city partnership. Not once on or off the record did either of us ever criticise our sister city, rather we sought a common understanding and approach to both competing and collaborating in a constructive way. Sadly, those joint working arrangements fell away when we left office, lost amidst an array of the challenges that followed the post Behrings economic collapse.

We think the time has come to revisit that partnership. Scotland’s two biggest cities are the engines of Scotland’s economy, and we strongly believe that a new approach is required to fire those engines to meet the undoubted challenges that lie ahead. Economic growth is harder to come by than it was when we were in power. Indeed, it is likely to get harder as cities and countries confront the challenges of an aging population where key workers will be in shorter supply, and in a world economy that remains fragile in the face of the upheavals caused by the Ukraine invasion and the conflict in the Middle East.

We do want to make clear that this is no central belt power grab that would ignore issues beyond the city regions of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The northern triangle of Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness is an equivalent and important economic area which should have its own strategy and resources. What we are suggesting simply formalises the fact that the area around and between our two great cities is in reality ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor, and public policy needs to reflect that to maximise growth and jobs for Scotland.

Both city regions contain 3.2million people. They contain a far higher proportion of Scotland’s economic activity and potential. Repeatedly both cities are highlighted as amongst the best in Europe and indeed the world.

Glasgow was recently found to be the best in Europe for its foreign direct investment strategy in a survey of ‘European Cities and Regions of the Future’. It was also in the news recently for the huge success achieved in regenerating its city centre population. Other studies such as the European Union Survey of satisfaction with life in cities showed that Glasgow has huge strength in terms of being ‘no mean city’ compared to some other UK cities. People in Glasgow felt safer in their community than people in London and Manchester, two of Europe’s other great cities. Indeed, more people felt that their neighbours could be trusted in Glasgow as well and fewer felt lonely. With more affordable housing than in many other cities this represents a huge opportunity to sell Glasgow as what it is, one of the best places to live in Europe.

Edinburgh’s achievements are no less significant with the city region ranked as having the 6^th highest GDP per capita in Europe. Its city centre has also bounced back from the depths of the Covid lockdowns with a recovery widely regarded as the best in the UK outside London. Edinburgh’s quality of life itself is a source of international envy and more than 90% of people are happy with life in a city that can boast residents having longer, healthier and wealthier lives than at any time in its history.

But it’s the combined strengths of the cities that makes the case for collaboration. Glasgow and Edinburgh have the equal second highest qualified populations in Europe according to the latest Resonance City Survey, and both cities have over half of their populations educated to degree equivalent or higher. In a world that is increasingly being driven by the knowledge economy Glasgow and Edinburgh are forces to be reckoned with internationally but are also to be nurtured.

When you look at the Forth Green Freeport area and the Clyde Mission combined, these two areas have over 1,500 hectares of land ripe for investment. The combined City Deals, which have seen joint working delivered smoothly are pulling in nearly £3billion in investment to Scotland. These are templates for effective joint working to be built on and improved.

We have followed the debate about City Region Mayors based on the (now) successful model adopted for Manchester and other cities. We both helped manage the chaotic aftermath of local government reorganisation in the mid 1990s. The reorganisation broke up and broke down services that were provided strategically and at scale by Strathclyde and Lothian Regional Councils. The Manchester model of layering a Mayor over the existing structures is an elegant way of avoiding major upheaval and enabling joint working to continue apace. Two City Region Mayors running these area as well as working together is the right model for ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor’ and for these two city regions.

Our great cities need to increase the pace of joint working and innovation. As the recent Audit Scotland report showed too much joint working and service integration has ossified in recent years. Where are the public sector hubs bringing together staff and services in areas such as social and health care? How is joint working between councils and the police to be fostered since the close historic links were torn asunder with the creation of police Scotland? Where is the joint property strategy in a public sector with more buildings than are needed and fewer staff working in them?

The changes we support are not of themselves a silver bullet, but they do reflect the need for change and innovation in a world where the pace of change is only going to increase. Cities are the building blocks of national economies, but the structures in Scotland ignore, rather than reflect that new reality.

We have always joked together about Glasgow and Edinburgh being the ‘Lennon and McCartney’ of modern cities, though just about the only thing we could never agree on was which one is which. Glasgow is the bigger economy and Edinburgh’s is growing faster. Who cares. Progress in the modern world will be based on smart collaboration AND competition. We should be clear, we’re not polishing our CVs for these new roles, but the passion we have always had for our respective cities is undimmed, as is our belief in their potential. That’s why we’re speaking out

We’re a small country on the northern fringes of Europe. It’s not the easiest place in which to build dynamic and successful cities, but it’s been done. However, the task and the challenges continue, and to rise to that challenge, and to fire the engines of the Scottish economy there needs to be a strong focus on what we’ve called ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor’ to create wealth and work for this and future generations, to meet the challenges of climate change, an aging population, secure investment and to make all our services better and more efficient.

The area covered by fourteen local authorities from Fife to the Borders and from Renfrewshire to North Lanarkshire contains the twin engines of Scotland’s economy and the majority of its population. ‘Scotland’s Growth Corridor’ and our two great cities  need Mayors, structures and powers to realise their and Scotland’s full potential.

Steven Purcell and Donald Anderson are the former Leaders of Glasgow and Edinburgh Councils

*A shorter version of this article appeared in the Scotsman on 27 August 2024