Nicholas Falk recommends the German model of devolving financial powers to cities and regions. Plus letters from Sushila Dhall and Kim Loader
The pleas for the north to match German levels of investment miss some crucial factors (What would a genuine plan for levelling up the north of England look like? Ask a German, 25 January). In Good Cities, Better Lives, published in 2013, Prof Sir Peter Hall and I drew on case studies of the resurgence of Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dortmund, Kassel and Freiburg to explain how German cities had powered ahead. There were eight factors: municipal leadership, highly connected cities, a knowledge-based economy, engineering excellence, regional finance, urban pride, a climate of innovation and intelligent spatial planning.
On a second visit I was impressed by how the devolution of power, thanks to the principle of subsidiarity, enabled key local actors in business, universities and local authorities to collaborate on a spatial plan. Leipzig lost 90% of its manufacturing jobs after reunification. Yet it not only attracted BMW’s giant car plant and engineering centre but also converted the largest spinning mill in the world into hundreds of art studios and galleries. Given our current crises, government must surely devolve financial powers to our cities and regions and stop trying to run everything from London?
Dr Nicholas Falk
Executive director, the Urbed Trust
