Dr Tim Leunig stands by attack on Liverpool
Oct 17 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post
Acaemic stands by attack on North
THE under-fire academic who said Liverpudlians should give up on their city, yesterday said he would not change a single line of his controversial report.
Dr Tim Leunig caused outrage in August when he said Liverpool had lost its raison d’etre. He advised policy makers to build millions of homes in the South East to house the droves who should move there. But, while he apologised for “upsetting” people in Merseyside, he said no one had challenged the facts underpinning his argument.
Dr Leunig, who writes for the Policy Exchange think-tank, was speaking before a showdown debate at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool last night.
He went head-to-head with Professor David Robertson, director of Liverpool John Moores University’s Institute for Public Policy Research.
The cathedral organised the debate after Dr Leunig’s Cities Unlimited report was met with howling criticism across Merseyside. Dr Leunig advised the Government to halt the regeneration of the city and for house builders to down tools.
In a world driven by road and air haulage, he said, Liverpool as a port city was a lost cause.
Yesterday, he said: “I will definitely apologise for upsetting people. But at the moment – as of before the event – I believe my report is factually correct. Nobody so far has disputed the facts. When we mention statistics, no one has disputed those. I would be surprised, these have been double checked.
“I will start off by thanking the cathedral, but, yes, then I will say sorry.
“I think it’s appropriate. You should always apologise when people are upset and should mean it, and I do mean it.
“I really, really wish things had been different in that sense.”
But Dr Leunig is sticking to the thrust of his argument.
He said: “I’ve seen a little bit of the city centre. But I’ve always known the centre of Liverpool is wonderful. The cathedral is fantastic. You have some of the best architecture in Britain, I’ve never ever disputed that.
“The question is about creating good jobs, and in some cases any jobs, for the people.
“According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, a rival think-tank to Policy Exchange, Liverpool has the lowest rate of employment for any major town or city in the country. And that’s a tragedy for those people.
“It also has the highest rate of in-work benefits. So Liverpool is not generating the number of jobs or the quality of jobs for the people.”
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