LIVERPOOL’S economic recovery is continuing after official figures showed it has grown faster than the UK in nine of the last 10 years.
However the city's improving economic fortunes contrast with the weaker performance of the wider Merseyside sub-region, which continues to fall behind the UK average.
Official economic output figures published by the Office for National Statistics reveal a nominal economic growth rate for Liverpool of 5.5% in 2006, ahead of the North West and UK figures of 5%.
The latest data, published last week, highlights a decade of success for Liverpool, even though it does not yet take into account the impact of the Capital of Culture year, the new Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre, Liverpool One and a number of smaller developments.
In the years since 1997, Liverpool has grown its GVA by 62% compared with the North West average of 49% and the UK average of 53%.
The figures are two years old because of the huge amount of data that is captured in the reports. The Office of National Statistics report does provide 2007 GVA figures for the regions, which shows the North West’s growth of 5.9% was only bettered by London and the South East.
However, Wirral and Sefton had GVA growth rates of 4% and 4.2% respectively in 2006 and in the previous five years their GVA increased by less than half of the UK average.
Along with the other poorly-performing areas, they are also losing ground on the areas which already had the highest GVA levels.
Four of the top five areas had growth of nearly 7% while the bottom five – which includes Wirral – all had growth of below 5%.
Jim Gill, chief executive of Liverpool's economic development agency Liverpool Vision, said: “The figures for Liverpool will include a strong contribution from the construction and property development sector and also a strong contribution from professional and business services.
“In Liverpool, the city centre has been driving the city while the city has been driving the wider city region.”
However, economist Peter Stoney, an honorary senior fellow at Liverpool University Management School and director of the Liverpool Research Group in Macroeconomics, is relatively unconcerned by the figures.
“People commute into Liverpool to work,” he said. “Large parts of Wirral and Sefton are dormitory areas servicing Liverpool. The fact that Liverpool is performing better than elsewhere isn’t a worry.
“But when you look at the index of multiple deprivation, areas like Kirkby, Knowsley and parts of Birkenhead are a worry.”
Merseyside continues to have the fifth-lowest GVA per head among the UK’s 37 sub-regional areas – a position it has had for the last couple of years after the initial estimated figures were revised.
With a GVA per capita figure of £13,615, Merseyside comes just above Tees Valley and Lincolnshire, with Cornwall and West Wales at the bottom of the list.
The Cheshire regions – split into two as Halton and Warrington, and Cheshire – grew strongly in 2006, with the southern half of the region in particular maintaining three years of impressive growth.
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