TODAY sees the publication of annual data recording the economic output of Britain’s regions.
The data, officially called GVA per capita by NUTS area 3, breaks down UK economic activity by local authority.
You can imagine the work involved. There must be legions of government statisticians crunching the numbers. How do they get down to the required level of detail without the need for copious supplies of wet towels? How can the Office for National Statistics possibly know how much economic activity to attribute to Liverpool and how much to Knowsley, Wirral, Halton, Trafford, Solihull, etc?
The figures also break down the same data by sub-region. Locally, that means Merseyside. Other sub-regions include Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Wales and the Valleys, Inner London, Outer London and Devon & Cornwall. In total, there are 37 sub-regions in Britain.
In the 10 years I have been reporting these figures, Merseyside has always been ranked either fourth or fifth from bottom, battling it out with the likes of Tees Valley (Middlesbrough) and the Highlands and Islands for the bottom places in the national league table.
It is highly illustrative of the fundamental structural weakness of Merseyside’s economy that most of the other sub- regions included in the bottom five are remote, rural economies with a heavy reliance on tourism. Merseyside does not have enough highly productive factories or well- paid professionals to stride away from these poor regions.
None of this is a surprise, of course. What will be interesting, though, is that today’s figures relate to 2008, Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. It was also the year that both the Echo Arena and Grosvenor’s Liverpool One opened for business. It will be interesting to see what discernible impact these developments and events have had on the local economy.
What’s for certain is that any measurable progress will be slow. We may overtake Tees Valley and Argyll. We might open a bigger lead on Gwynedd and even begin to narrow the gap on Sheffield and South Yorkshire. What we won’t be doing, though, is leapfrogging Cheshire (one of the most productive sub-regions of Europe) or London (one of the most productive places in the world).
But any progress would be good progress, so fingers crossed.
MARTIN BROUGHTON has a taste for the controversial.
In October, he blasted the UK government for “kow-towing” to the Americans on overly stringent airport security.
Last week, he played the controversy card again when he gave the keynote address at Liverpool Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner.
The former chairman of Liverpool Football Club has spent the last few months riding two horse at once.
He negotiated the sale of Liverpool while at the same leading the merger talks between BA and Spain’s Iberia. It must have been a difficult juggling act.
Predictably, his suggestion last week that Everton and Liverpool should share a new ground was not greeted with enthusiasm by fans.
While I have previously advocated a ground share, the fact is the time when this might have been workable has now passed. Neither Everton nor Liverpool can afford even a half-share of the £300m cost of building a stadium of any scale. The only realistic option left to both clubs is the piecemeal redevelopment of their existing grounds.
