Achieving higher levels of economic growth is one of the main objectives of the current government.
However, for many neighbourhoods in England, high growth is a distant memory. The areas that most need economic growth have not seen it.
The annual growth rate of Blackpool, one of the most disadvantaged places in England, has been 0.5% per year over the past twenty years. In Sunderland, 0.5% per year. East Kent, 0.5% per year. Bradford, 0.7% per year. These are all already well below UK average over this period of 1.4% per year, which by our recent historic norm remains low.
These figures are not arbitrary: they reflect deep divides in both living standards and opportunities, that have left the poorest neighbourhoods isolated from national prosperity. If the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England had experienced productivity growth at the same rate as the rest of country through the 2010s, they would have added another £9.8bn per year to national output. That is the equivalent of £2,618 of additional annual economic output per household in Mission Critical and Mission Priority neighbourhood that we have foregone.
This report by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods and the Growth and Reform Network examines how economic isolation continues to shape outcomes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, limiting access to jobs, growth and investment. Drawing on new analysis of neighbourhood productivity over the past decade, it identifies the factors that helped some places escape stagnation and sets out policy options to reconnect communities to economic opportunity.
