Budget response from Dermot Finch, Centre for Cities

Date: 22/06/2010

Dermot Finch, Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities said,

"The Coalition Government clearly recognises the need for more enterprise and growth in cities outside the Greater South East in the Emergency Budget.  As George Osborne mentioned in his Budget speech, between 1998 and 2008, for every private sector job generated in the North and Midlands, ten were created in London and the South.

"Measures announced today like the 3 years employer NICs holiday for businesses outside the Greater South East are likely to be a short term boost but won't be enough to bridge the jobs gap affecting many of England's cities.  All eyes now will be on the White Paper on sub-national growth to be released later in the summer, with more detail on the role of Local Enterprise Partnerships in rebalancing the economy.  In this, we'd like to see more on how the Government can support the expansion of buoyant cities across the country - where high growth businesses are already adding large numbers of private sector jobs."

See Dermot's blog for more reaction.