Government urged to assess whether those left behind benefit from capital projects

Tyneside: residents need to benefit from growth strategies and capital spending, says commission

Tyneside: residents need to benefit from growth strategies and capital spending, says commission

Theresa May's Government must make good its pledge to make a nation that "works for everyone" by overhauling the appraisal of projects so that their impact on which people benefit, not purely the total amount of growth.

A commission on 'inclusive growth' set up by the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) to influence the Autumn Statement says the vote to leave the European Union highlighted the problem, noted by May, that too many people are not benefiting from growth, with fast-growing sectors locating in larger city centres, leaving people in more outlying areas behind. Its interim findings say that only measuring the growth of local areas by looking at gross value added means only the quantity of growth, and not its quality, is considered, and urges that how growth is enjoyed geographically is also a deciding factor when deciding investments.

"Inclusive growth in which everyone has the opportunity to prosper needs to be our new definition of economic growth. There is a danger that devolution will only benefit those places that have the narrow characteristics of places that are already succeeding," and it is "tough to connect people in smaller towns, suburbs and more rural areas to the centre of metropolitan economies," with a major barrier the cost of travel.

However, the commission says that transport links are not enough in themselves to change economic mobility, with Barking and Dagenham not benefiting from jobs in Canary Wharf, or Tyneside from investment in Newcastle and Gateshead. "Does that mean that we should stop investing in city centres and 'spread the jam' to create jobs in other places?" it asks, ahead of its final report.