Region’s economy outstrips all rivals
GREATER Manchester’s economic growth has outstripped all its rivals including London - since the Northern Powerhouse was launched.
The area’s productivity rose by 6.8 per cent between 2014 and 2016. That compares with growth of just 4.6 per cent in Greater London.
The news is revealed in figures from the Office for National Statistics that measure so-called ‘Gross value added per head’ at a city-regional level for the first time.
Gross value added per head measures the average contribution of everyone who lives in an area to that area’s economic output. The figure rises with better paid jobs, lower unemployment and more successful
Then-chancellor George Osborne announced in 2014 the Northern Powerhouse scheme to stimulate investment in the North of England.
At that point, Greater Manchester’s GVA per head was £21,435. By 2016, it had risen to £22.886 - a rise of 6.8%.
That is a sharper increase than any other local industries. city-region in the country.
West Yorkshire, which is in second place, has seen GVA per head rise by 6.1 per cent. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is third, with 5.5 per cent.
Sheffield is up 5.0 per cent, the West Midlands by 4.4 per cent, Liverpool by 4.1 per cent and the North East by 3.5 per cent.
High-tech and media industries have made the biggest economic leap forward in Greater Manchester over the past two years.
In 2014, the Information and Communication sector contributed £2.8bn to the local economy.
Manufacturing contributed £10.6bn to the Greater Manchester economy in 2016 - 10.6 per cent more than in 2014.
And the city-centre boom means construction contributed 9.2 per cent more to the local economy in 2016 than 2014 - £3.6bn compared to£3.3bn two years earlier.
Industries which have seen a dip include financial and insurance activities. Those contributed £4.2bn to the Greater Manchester economy in 2014 but only £3.8bn in 2016.
And while the figures suggest progress in our region, there is still a huge gap to close before it is in any sense an economic rival to Greater London.