Resource information
The emergence of city-regions in England
offers some useful lessons for the World Bank partners in
developing countries. The city-region approach, as applied
in England touches upon issues of decentralization,
intergovernmental fiscal relations, governance, and the need
to realign outdated administrative arrangements with a
metropolitan area's economic footprint, among other
highly relevant topics for rapidly urbanizing cities in
developing countries. As a concept, city-regions are
designed to promote cross-boundary collaboration across
large urban areas. They aim to facilitate horizontal and
vertical co-ordination between multiple jurisdictions. They
advance the concept of an appropriate spatial scale for
economic development functions such as transport, housing
and training. They capture urban hinterlands, as well as
core cities. This note explains: 1) the emergence of
city-regions in England, 2) the current policy framework in
England, 3) a case study of Greater Manchester, 4)
city-region contracts as a policy tool to codify
intergovernmental institutional arrangements, and 5)
transferable lessons.
