Sheffield City Region Documents

Attachments to items on this page can be found at the foot of the page.

Sheffield City Region: City Relationships report

The Northern Way and the Department of Communities and Local Government commissioned the City Relationships research programme which was carried out by The Work Foundation, Centre for Cities and SURF between October 2008 and November 2009.

The research aimed to test a hypothesis derived from recent studies that stronger and more complementary economic relationships between towns and cities in the North of England would generate higher levels of sustainable economic growth and development. The project examined the economic relationships of five of the most significant economic centres in the North - Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield - and a selection of cities and towns nearby, looking in particular at labour market linkages and the connections between businesses. It considered barriers to more complementary economic relationships and what public policy might do to foster them. A synthesis report was produced to provide an overview of the Northern city regions and broad results in addition to five separate reports on each of the economic centres.

The study on the Sheffield City Region provides an interesting and evocative view of how the city region and Sheffield in particular, as the main economy, connects and relates to a selection of the districts that surround it. The study team used four broad definitions of the types of relationships, and described these as ‘Independent’, ‘Interdependent’, ‘Dependent’ and ‘Isolated’. These definitions refer to the relationship that the city of Sheffield has with other districts in the city region. These districts will in turn have differing and separate links to other towns and cities. The report describes the city of Sheffield as ‘weakly monocentric’ which means that the links and connections to towns and settlements around it are not as strong and complementary as they should be, and that the city region would benefit from strengthening those relationships.

As only some of the districts were included in the main Sheffield City Region report, the Sheffield City Region Executive Team commissioned an extension report to cover the remainder of the districts that were left out of the original report. This report was completed in January 2010.

The reports are as follows:

· The synthesis report: City Relationships: Economic Linkages in Northern City Regions

· City Relationships: Sheffield City Region / Sheffield City Region Data Annex

· Sheffield City Region Extended Analysis

The rest of the city region reports can be downloaded from the Northern Way website:

· http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/page.asp?id=795

Sheffield City Region: Development Programme

Each City Region is required to produce a development programme setting out its proposals for accelerating economic growth. Collectively the eight city regions making up The Northern Way initiative aim to reduce the £30 billion productivity gap between the North and the average for England.

The Sheffield City Region Development Programme was published in September 2006 and sets out a 20 year vision for the City Region. It articulates priorities and proposals to enhance economic growth and address the underlying weaknesses in the economy. The Development Programme includes an analysis of economic trends within the Sheffield City Region and the prospects for future growth. It sets out four elements for future growth:

Capitalising on the City Region’s pivotal position in relation to the economic hubs of Leeds and Manchester, and the south through East Midlands to London, and Hull and the Humber Ports.
Accelerating sustainable economic growth through a number of key economic drivers.
Re-establishing the main cities and towns as retail, commercial and business centres.
Addressing the underlying weaknesses with regard to enterprise, skills, participation, connectivity and the provision of housing for growth.

Sheffield City Region: Economic Development

The Sheffield City Region submission to become a forerunner city region pilot is available for download below. Please note that Annex 1 to the submission (Economic Context; Threshold Criteria; and Impact of the recession and Growth Forecasts) is available on request (this is because the file is too large to be uploaded to the website). Please contact Pat White on 0114 263 5685 or email pat.white@sheffieldcityregion.org.uk.