Newcastle’s economy is losing £1.7bn a year because of poor public transport and badly planned neighbourhoods, a new study claims.
The research by the Centre for Cities group says that more than four million people living around the Northern cities of Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool are unable to travel to their city centres via public transport within 30 minutes, restricting them from employment and education opportunities. Only around a third of people in Northern urban areas are well connected to city centres, half the levels of European cities such as Hamburg, Marseille and Bilbao.
Newcastle outperforms Northern counterparts in terms of connectivity, with 46% of residents able to reach the city centre in 30 minutes or less, but that is still well below the similarly-sized French city of Lille, where 70% of people can. The research shines a light on two of the key pledges in the Government’s recent Levelling Up White Paper that it will create a “globally competitive city” in every region of the UK, as well as aspirations to bring public transport systems around the country closer to the standards of services in London.
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Centre for Cities said local mayors should be given powers to take control of bus services, and that the planning system should be reformed to help new “midrise” neighbourhoods be built in suburban areas.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter said: “Last month the Government outlined its ambition to create a ‘global city’ in every part of the UK by 2030, yet our research shows that major cities across the North are lagging far behind their European counterparts in terms of connectivity and providing thriving public transport networks. Our reliance on car-dependent low-rise suburbs is keeping local transport revenues down and costing the country billions of pounds in lost productivity – money that could otherwise be spent on building successful London-style transport systems in city regions across the North.
“If we want these cities to reach their global potential, we need to see more passengers living close to quality public transport links. Attempts to fix this problem by investing in transport infrastructure will fail unless substantial planning reforms are made to build new midrise neighbourhoods closer to city centres.”
Centre for Cities said the connectivity gap with Europe is down to cities on the continent having well-connected suburbs with denser housing closer to the city centre. Northern cities tend to be more spread out, and have greater reliance on cars.
Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said: “Decades of underfunding our public transport networks hasn’t just given us a poor air quality problem, it’s clearly holding our economy back. This report gives extra urgency to our lobbying for sustained Government resources to improve the accessibility, reliability and affordability of buses and metros across the region. I also welcome the clearly evidenced need for a new approach to bus franchising, putting the needs of the travelling public first.”
North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll said: “A poor public transport system poisons everything – including the air around us. Poor public transport stops people working, taking their kids to school on-time, and seeing family and friends. It keeps people isolated, and disadvantages the towns and rural areas of our region.
"A fast, reliable and affordable public transport system would pay for itself, because more people would use it. By integrating buses, Metros and trains with better and safer walking and cycling infrastructure, we can improve health, wellbeing and our economy.
“We need central Government to honour their promise of London-levels of investment in public transport. Investing now will save us a fortune later.”
