The big China sell: UK cities need to hitch our supply to their demand to turn genteel decline into spurred growth

Abstract

This article reflects on how UK cities are very slowly adapting themselves to the changing world where growth economies, and particularly China, the world’s second largest economy, have become the focus of global policy attention. Most UK cities, accustomed to a highly centralized state, are poor at any consistent international targeting, and especially poor out of their traditional US and Western European comfort zone, where the great majority of their exports still go. However, the China challenge—whether a city can hitch its particular supply to their particular demand—is probably the single most important economic challenge of the decade, and will determine whether a city experiences genteel decline or spurred growth.