LEVELLING UP
"We all want to feel pride in the place that we live, but Onward’s latest research finds too many people in our towns don’t feel optimistic about the future. Town residents have two clear asks of government – a stronger approach to tackling crime and a better regeneration offer for their high streets and town centres. In this note, we set out some of the positive options open to council leaders and Mayors alike to help reverse the tide, and to build stronger, more confident and happier communities.”
Before the former Government’s Long-term Plan for Towns, the prevailing political emphasis in the last quarter century has been on cities as the engine of economic growth, with towns being overlooked by policymakers in favour of cities. Love thy Neighbour, Onward’s latest research note on the relationship between towns and cities, finds that towns feel far more pessimistic about their areas than cities.
Town dwellers are far more likely than people in their neighbouring city to feel their area has worsened over the past five years. 62% of city residents thought their area was doing well whereas just 44% of town dwellers felt the same way.
There are some towns where almost nobody feels their town is doing well relative to their neighbours, like Dewbusry in Yorkshire, where nearly half of all residents feel their area is doing very poorly. While cities feel more optimistic about their futures on average, two cities buck this trend. Over a third Londoners and Brummies feel their city is set to get worse in the next five years.
Despite the feeling of being left behind, residents of towns do not harbour resentment towards their neighbours in cities. Even in the least friendly town surveyed – Dudley – well over half (62%) still say they like their neighbours in Birmingham and 56% think that the same policies that benefit Birmingham will benefit them too.
69% of town residents are happy to travel to cities for leisure and almost half are happy to travel for work. But almost three-quarters of town residents want essential amenities (schools, health centres, and grocery stores), within their local area.
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