The British town that’s quietly outgrowing the rest of the UK – and putting £1,000 extra in residents’ pockets
Cities that have achieved greater prosperity should be the model for the country, and their citizens are not only better off but actually have more money in their pockets.
This was a key takeaway from the latest Cities Outlook report published by the Centre for Cities. The report serves as an annual health check of the economic performance of urban Britain, offering a deep dive into the latest economic data on how UK cities are performing against a range of indicators, including innovation, housing, skills, employment and productivity.
The data shows that for all cities, a strong local economy is the necessary first ingredient for residents to experience higher living standards. This means focusing on expanding the tradeable business
base.
It cited Barnsley as a good example of a place that has focused on improving its economic fundamentals over the past decade as a means to lift local incomes.
How Barnsley is succeeding
Barnsley’s almost 2% annual economic growth has outpaced the UK average since 2013. Local disposable incomes have also risen at more than twice the national rate – the average Barnsley resident has £1,000 more in their pocket than a decade ago in real terms.
This strong performance has been helped by a proactive local authority. Focusing on the local economic base – Barnsley’s M1 corridor location has seen it rise as a logistics hub – the council has opened up industrial land around motorway junctions ensuring this activity has space to grow.
This has helped Barnsley successfully adapt its economy away from manufacturing and towards higher-value service sectors. Since 2015, the city has added 6,000 more private service jobs, of which a third are in Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) – far more than cities with similar starting points such as Huddersfield, Blackburn, Hull, and Sunderland.
Building on this performance, the council’s latest economic strategy identifies future plans to keep Barnsley’s economy growing. The strategy demonstrates knowledge of current economic strengths but also the courage to use these strengths to diversify into other growing areas, rather than doubling down. It is a template for other cities looking to strengthen their local economy because:
It focuses on the tradeable base – the strategy sets an explicit target to increase the share of jobs in tradeable sectors to more in line with the national average, with a focus on professional business services.
It commits to increase economic ‘complexity’, meaning building up specialist capabilities and knowledge to increase productivity and better allow adaptation to future innovative activities.This includes recognition that while its current manufacturing base is ‘tradeable’, it is less specialised and so less productive than other industries.
The strategy aims to use its supply chain to build more specialised industries around large cutting-edge employers in the region, such as Boeing and Rolls-Royce.
It identifies what Barnsley does not have. Instead of going all in on existing strengths – some of which are vulnerable to automation – the council aims to diversify the local economy. The planned city centre SEAM Digital Campus aims to build new capabilities in tech, while a key priority is to use the city’s logistics base to attract a wider set of ancillary professional services.
It focuses on the city centre. A strategic objective is to use the city centre’s designation as a ‘growth area’ in the South Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Plan for Good Growth to attract office-based KIBS firms. This alongside the SEAM development will help the ongoing regeneration of the city centre.
