Importing the Metropolitan Revolution

Analysis

BBC

News, Politics

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2013

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In America, there is talk of a "metropolitan revolution" as big cities reinvent themselves. Matthew Taylor asks if Britain too can transform its economy by setting city halls free.

In America, there's a growing realisation that the old economic model, based on every city aiming for "a Starbucks, stadia and stealing business," has failed to revive urban economies. But now cities such as Denver, Colorado -- once famous for the oil money that inspired the soap opera Dynasty -- have turned a corner. This "Metropolitan Revolution" was led by local mayors who ripped up the old administrative boundaries and did creative things to diversify the economy and create jobs, such as building a vast new airports and offering incentives to hi-tech start-ups.

For this week's edition of Analysis, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA and a former insider in Downing Street under Tony Blair, sets out to see if these new ideas could hold answers for Britain's long term economic future. Cities are where the modern global economy happens, but ever since the decline of heavy industry, Britain's northern cities have performed below the national average. Now, key national and local figures, from Lord Michael Heseltine to Bristol's new Mayor George Ferguson, famous for his red trousers, are pinning their hopes for an economic revival on giving greater economic powers to city halls. Speaking to a wide range of voices from both sides of the Atlantic, and combining wit with insights from urban geography, history and economics, Matthew asks: could Britain's great cities be the key to us all turning the economic corner?

Producer: Mukul Devichand.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
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0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis.
0:39.2	In this program, Matthew Taylor asks, is it time we stop putting our faith in monetary policy to bring about an economic recovery?
0:46.8	He meets the local leaders pioneering an alternative grassroots approach. Remember dynasty? The 80s soap set in Denver, Colorado. Michael Hancock does.
1:07.0	He is the mayor of Denver today.
1:10.0	Dynasty really talked about the boom and the bust of the era and families and fortunes that were built and lost.
1:17.0	In the early 1980s, the bottom fell out of the oil and gas industries and Denver had to reinvent itself.
1:24.4	It had to move from a single economic base to a multi-tiered economic base in order to survive.
1:31.6	Cities dependent on a single industry are always vulnerable.
1:35.0	Almost overnight, their strength can become their weakness. When the oil money ran out
1:40.0	in Denver, there were no alternatives. Local economies need to be more diverse,
1:45.1	more collaborative, built for the long term. That's the thinking in today's Denver.
1:50.3	It's pioneered a new model of local economic governance.
1:54.0	And now policy makers from Washington, D.C.
1:57.0	to Washington Tine and Weir are taking notice of people like this.
2:01.0	My name is Randy Pye.
	...

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