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Competitive Scottish Cities?
Placing Scotland's cities in the UK and European context
Executive Summary
Urban Competitiveness - what really matters?
We define and measure urban competitiveness in terms of six characteristics: economic diversity; skilled workforce; connectivity; strategic capacity to implement long-term development strategies; innovation in firms and organisations; quality of life. Our original study for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister collected evidence on these characteristics for the English Core Cities along with a number of successful continental European cities. This project adds the six Scottish Cities to the analysis.
Scottish Cities in the UK context
In terms of size and scale only Glasgow and Edinburgh are comparable to the English Core Cities. Edinburgh and Glasgow are also significant employment centres. These cities have been leading in terms of growth in employment between 1998 and 2002, with growth rates ahead of the Scottish average. The only English Core Cities with greater percentage growth in total number of employees are Manchester and Newcastle.
Edinburgh and Stirling are the two Scottish cities to have experienced increases in their residential population between 1996 and 2003. The only English Core Cities to experience population growth during the same period were Manchester, Bristol, and Leeds. Both Aberdeen and Dundee saw their residential population fall by more than any of the other English Core Cities.
Employment rates are generally high in Scotland, with a high proportion of the working age population in work. Aberdeen and Edinburgh have employment rates ahead of any of the English Core Cities. And these cities have high levels of GVA per capita as does Glasgow. Across the board the Scottish cities have a well-qualified workforce and attainment levels at the end of compulsory education are good.
Scottish Cities in the European context
There is only limited data available at the city level. Again this shows that generally Scottish cities are smaller in terms of total numbers of residents and total employment than the successful European cities. The Scottish cities and their regions tend to perform well in terms of employment rates and well-qualified work force. However, productivity and innovation are lower than in many successful European cities.
Connectivity, in terms of air links, is improving. With low-cost carriers increasing connections between Scotland's cities and many English and European destinations.
Remaining Gaps
This report made use of readily available quantitative data. However, many gaps remain. For example innovation, strategic capacity and quality of life are areas that need to be explored further.
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