London Mayor seizes on declining tax-take outside capital to urge devolution acceleration

England has become increasingly dependent upon London over time with the majority of British cities generating less tax-income per job than a decade ago, adding weight to calls for greater devolution of revenue-generation, the London Mayor said.

A Centre for Cities report shows that almost a third of cities are generating less economic tax - corporation tax, income tax and VAT - in their areas now than a decade ago and two-thirds are generating less tax per job than in 2004/05. Only a handful of smaller cities are generating significantly more, led by Ipswich, Luton, Portsmouth, Crawley and Chatham. Manchester, where tax receipts grew by only one per cent only a decade, added only slightly less tax into the national pot over the period than the ten fastest growing small and medium-sized cities combined.

All our cities taking back control to unleash the energy and dynamism this country needs

This has led to the country's reliance on London increasing: in 2004/05 it generated as much as the next 24 biggest cities, while in 2014/15 it generated almost as much as the next 37 biggest cities. The think-tank said that low productivity and low-wage employment both needed to be tackled.

Sadiq Khan said the figures showed that more balanced development was needed, so "all our cities and neighbourhoods taking back control to unleash the energy and dynamism this country needs in light of its decision to leave the EU."