How can the UK’s largest cities become hubs of innovation, driving growth and widespread renewal?
Place leaders across the UK, their private sector partners and national policymakers share an ambition to see more UK cities harnessing the power of the innovation economy to deliver:
The question of how this vital mission can be achieved is central not only to the future success of the UK’s economy, but to the sustainability of its places and the prosperity of its people.
Although the answers are complex the way forward does not have to be. We can begin now with straightforward steps, pioneered by place leadership across the public, private and third sectors, backed by government and supported by the Connected Places Catapult, without the need for rewiring of the system or a large injection of additional public funds, as welcome as that may be.
This insights summary supports new analysis aimed at local and national policymakers seeks to lay out the opportunity, diagnose the challenges and propose a suite of practical actions. These are not intended to solve all problems across the entire innovation landscape instead focusing on three sets of fundamental issues: leadership; strategy; and investment. Our aim is to begin a dialogue about how we can empower more places across the UK to navigate their way to an innovation-led future of sustainable growth and prosperity.
Firstly, we explore the state of the UK’s urban innovation landscape, discovering enormous potential, which is only partially realised, recognising that unless we do more, the UK risks lagging behind the competition and missing out on billions in additional investment and growth each year.
Next, we propose three sets of solutions to: convene local partners and assets; leverage these through cross-sector strategies and multi-city partnerships; and align public investment to leverage more private capital, also boosting commercialisation. These proposals are aimed at place leadership – convened by but going beyond local government – at central government and its agencies.
And finally, we set out how places can begin to implement these proposals, develop plans based on the distinctive histories, assets, strengths and challenges of different types of cities to unlock their potential (a ‘Typology of City Pathways’), and how these can be turned into investment strategies. This includes a package of support from Connected Places Catapult to help make this happen.
Each of these themes are explored further in series of three detailed reports we are publishing alongside this paper – The Opportunity of the Urban Era, Seizing the opportunity, and A Place-Centric Path to Prosperity.
Together, these represent:
Whilst focused on cities and other urban areas as primary clusters of innovation, and the subject of the RSA Urban Future Commission which this work is intended to support, the proposals in these papers are relevant to many other places including towns and rural areas across the UK and we would welcome a wider dialogue with them.
How can the UK’s largest cities become hubs of innovation, driving growth and widespread renewal?
Place leaders across the UK, their private sector partners and national policymakers share an ambition to see more UK cities harnessing the power of the innovation economy to deliver:
The question of how this vital mission can be achieved is central not only to the future success of the UK’s economy, but to the sustainability of its places and the prosperity of its people.
Although the answers are complex the way forward does not have to be. We can begin now with straightforward steps, pioneered by place leadership across the public, private and third sectors, backed by government and supported by the Connected Places Catapult, without the need for rewiring of the system or a large injection of additional public funds, as welcome as that may be.
This insights summary supports new analysis aimed at local and national policymakers seeks to lay out the opportunity, diagnose the challenges and propose a suite of practical actions. These are not intended to solve all problems across the entire innovation landscape instead focusing on three sets of fundamental issues: leadership; strategy; and investment. Our aim is to begin a dialogue about how we can empower more places across the UK to navigate their way to an innovation-led future of sustainable growth and prosperity.
Firstly, we explore the state of the UK’s urban innovation landscape, discovering enormous potential, which is only partially realised, recognising that unless we do more, the UK risks lagging behind the competition and missing out on billions in additional investment and growth each year.
Next, we propose three sets of solutions to: convene local partners and assets; leverage these through cross-sector strategies and multi-city partnerships; and align public investment to leverage more private capital, also boosting commercialisation. These proposals are aimed at place leadership – convened by but going beyond local government – at central government and its agencies.
And finally, we set out how places can begin to implement these proposals, develop plans based on the distinctive histories, assets, strengths and challenges of different types of cities to unlock their potential (a ‘Typology of City Pathways’), and how these can be turned into investment strategies. This includes a package of support from Connected Places Catapult to help make this happen.
Each of these themes are explored further in series of three detailed reports we are publishing alongside this paper – The Opportunity of the Urban Era, Seizing the opportunity, and A Place-Centric Path to Prosperity.
Together, these represent:
Whilst focused on cities and other urban areas as primary clusters of innovation, and the subject of the RSA Urban Future Commission which this work is intended to support, the proposals in these papers are relevant to many other places including towns and rural areas across the UK and we would welcome a wider dialogue with them.
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