This report shows how history shapes the extent of innovation in the UK's city-regions, and why regional development policy should reflect this.

Key findings:

• Innovation is uneven across the UK, occurring in clusters.
• There is still a tension between administrative boundaries and economic and social reality; history matters more than geography in shaping the UK’s city- regions.
• A city-region’s innovation system determines how likely it is that new sectors can flourish there. City regions must be able to escape their pasts to create new economic futures; to support this city-regional policy must become historically aware.
• Large-scale and multi-purpose initiatives combined with policies that tolerate a degree of redundancy are more likely to be successful.
• New innovation trajectories can be created from multiple sources.

Innovation performance varies substantially across Great Britain, and the different history of each city-region has a substantial bearing on its economic position today. But until recently, regional development policy has not reflected either the functional status of city-regions, nor taken full account of their histories.

But this is a major oversight. City-regions with traditional heavy industries have found it harder to adapt to new ideas than those starting with a clean industrial slate. The point is amply illustrated through a case study of two contrasting cities – Cambridge and Swansea – with dramatically different innovation outcomes flowing from their particular histories.

Policymakers need to develop an historical awareness in crafting regional innovation policy. City-regional governments should think carefully about how their unique historical development might determine their strategies for the future. And each city-region is different: breaking from an existing, low-innovation path is about more than applying a generic ‘regional innovation’ formula.

Author:

Nesta