City Collaboration
Recent years have seen a remarkable renaissance in the fortunes of the UK’s cities.
New industries, occupations and technologies; the growth of higher education; changing household composition; and the economic importance of tourism and culture are some of the changes that cities have exploited. Glasgow and Edinburgh have been particularly successful, generating half of all the additional jobs in Scotland from 1995-2003 (i).
Glasgow and Edinburgh now want to raise their game. They want to develop the critical mass held by experts as being key to success, by borrowing scale and diversity from each other.
In European terms, Glasgow and Edinburgh are small - but geographically close. Despite historic rivalries, there is already an important economic relationship, through more formal collaboration they can “punch above their weight”.
Successful cities such as Copenhagen-Malmo (the Oresund), the Netherlands’ Randstadt cities, and leading businesses such as Microsoft, Nissan and GlaxoSmithKline have shown that collaboration works. The example provided by joint marketing of Glasgow and Edinburgh by VisitScotland shows that similar benefits are available here. In the private sector, Glasgow’s Willow Tea Rooms and the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh also shows how collaboration benefits both parties.
Collaboration is not a ‘universal panacea’, and does not replace competition in many spheres. It is another tool that can allow cities to “borrow scale” in order to compete for bigger prizes.
These webpages show how Glasgow and Edinburgh are now collaborating, and what benefits can be reaped by working together.
The linked file provides a more detailed ‘business case’ for collaboration.
i Annual Business Inquiry, Annual Employment Survey (Office for National Statistics)
