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ANGLESEY AND THE POOREST PARTS OF THE UK


On the train to Brussels yesterday, I decided to play around with some of the GVA/head data for the UK, which examines the relative prosperity of different parts of the country.

In particular, I was interested in the ten poorest parts of the UK in 2001 and their relative performance since then.

As you can see from the graph, two areas in Scotland - the Western Isles and Caithness/ Sutherland/Ross and Cromarty - have increased their GVA/head significantly during the period whereas similar peripheral rural areas in Wales - Anglesey  and Conwy/Denbighshire - have remained in the doldrums.

At this moment, I haven't got any time to look into this phenomenon in detail but will ask some of my research team to do so over the next week or so.

It would be fascinating to understand why some peripheral areas, such as those in Scotland, are growing whilst similar rural areas such as Anglesey remain stagnant. Hopefully, policymakers would also be interested in such results, especially as there is little evidence of any geographical focus within any of the economic strategies developed by WAG.

Comments

Owen said…
One word : Energy.

Thanks to the Scottish Parliament having significant powers over energy and the Crown Estate they've been able to fully exploit renewables, in particular wind. Some of the largest wind turbines in Europe are in the Moray Firth (Caithness/Ross/Cromarty).

In the Western Isles there are community-owned energy schemes which even if they generate a modest income, due to the small population (which has had problems stabilising) it will give the GVA figures a disproportionately big boost.

That doesn't mean that the Western Isles or any other far flung part of Scotland is any less dependent on the public sector as a result it should be said.
November 11, 2010 10:31 am
Anonymous said…
This is a stark reminder of why devolution, in its current form, isn't working for the economy of Wales.
November 11, 2010 1:32 pm
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
In between meetings in Finland but having done some further analysis on the comparison between the two Scottish regions and Anglesey, and the GVA data seems to point to public administration, education and health as the key differentiator. For example, public administration accounted for 46 per cent of the growth in GVA in the Western Isles between 2001 and 2007 and for 32 per cent of the growth in Caithness & Sutherland and Ross And Cromarty. In contrast, it accounted for only 18 per cent of the growth in GVA on Anglesey. More work needs to be done here to determine how the public sector has had an impact and in what form.
November 11, 2010 3:36 pm
Jeff Jones said…
But Dylan if public adminstration is such an important factor in these areas what chance have they got once the cuts in public sector spending kicks in? I know that your post was about Ynys Mon but looking at the Central Valleys and the Gwent Valleys you really have to wonder what the future holds for young people in those areas. If you see graphs going in the direction shown on your post in the years of plenty what could happen in the next few years doesn't really bear thinking about. Again the graphs are further evidence in my opinion that the old industrial areas of South East Wales need to see the development of a city region centred on Cardiff as the means of driving economic improvement.astr
November 11, 2010 4:17 pm
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans said…
Jeff - will try and look at what has happened in the Central and Gwent Valleys as well. I would suspect that its the loss of manufacturing that will have had the greatest impact there but let me have time to analyse this as I am off to another meeting with the Finns.
November 11, 2010 4:50 pm
Jeff Jones said…
Reading today's Scotsman it was interesting to read that the SNP's John Swinney is thinking of diverting revenue money into capital to maintain some form of momentum in the Scottish economy. I would have thought that advocating this sort of move would have made more sense for the Tories in Wales than arguing for the populist but wrong policy that the health budget should be ring fenced. No sensible politician should advocate the ring fencing of any public sector budget in the present financial climate in my opinion. Capital spending should be protected. Electrification of the valley lines to create a proper metro system based on Cardiff in South East Wales should,for example, be a priority for any minister with a vision for the Economy in Wales.Social housing money should also be increased. Not just because of the much needed houses and construction jobs that it would provide. Anyone who understands private housing developments in Wales will also realise how important it has now become in pump priming the private sector on many of those developments. My fear is that next week the Assembly again will go for the popular choices which appease the vested interests in the short term but do nothing to answer the long term economic problems of so many parts of Wales. In particular there has to be more honesty with regard to some of the so called flag ship regeneration programmes which are frankly not working. In the past few weeks we have had more announcements of millions to be spent on projects which might improve for a short time the street scene in an area but which will do absolutely nothing for real economic regeneration.
November 12, 2010 8:01 am
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