Introduction
The UK is a heavily urbanised and, compared with most of the other OECD countries, very densely populated country. Moreover, in some parts of the country, large and small cities are clustered close together, notably in the central belt of Scotland, the heartland of England from Liverpool in the west to Hull in the east, and around London. There is a preponderance of ‘older’ cities that grew rapidly in the 19th century as the country industrialised, many of which owed their expansion to the development of particular industries, such as textiles, coal and steel or heavy engineering. The briefest of looks at the map of urban Britain shows that the spatial pattern of urban Britain does not conform to an obvious central-place pattern. Instead, it can be argued that the geographical locations reflect characteristics that once provided competitive advantages for traditional manufacturing, such as proximity to coal, water or industrial raw materials, or ease of access to imported materials.
These characteristics are not, however, necessarily well suited to a national economy increasingly dominated by modern service industries, with the result that the competitiveness of many cities has diminished. Their history inevitably affects their prospects and the scope for policy to improve their functioning and competitive advantage. Cities cannot easily shed their historically determined institutional, economic, social and physical structures and the performance of a city in maintaining full employment and a high quality of life for its residents is crucially determined by this legacy.
The extent and nature of a city’s economic and social problems reflect not only the effective and efficient functioning of it as a place supporting the employment, income and quality of life of its residents, but also its competitiveness and role within the wider urban system. ‘Competitiveness’ (an abused term, Krugman [1996], argues) is, however, an elusive and slippery notion that is capable of being interpreted in different ways (Kresl, 1995; Begg, 1999). Successful cities can be defined as those that function well and compete effectively with other cities for private and public sector resources (the sources of jobs, income and quality of life). Unsuccessful cities tend to be characterised by a population loss and lack of employment or by an inability to surmount evident social and economic problems.