How do we plan and deliver the growth corridors the UK needs? Andrew Nothstine, Arup Director & UK Economics & Casemaking Leader, explains.
For thousands of years, investment in connectivity has been a fundamental catalyst for driving growth, prosperity, and economic reinvention. The ancient Romans built more than 120,000km of roads across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, many of which are still in use today. The Erie Canal and St Lawrence Seaway transformed the early economies of Canada and the United States. The postwar motorway boom in the UK and US opened land for housing and industry while also improving logistics networks.
In recent years, we’ve arguably lost sight of this core rationale for enhancing connectivity between our cities. We now make decisions about what projects to fund largely based on abstract concepts like ‘generalised journey times,’ and we artificially limit the scope of our benefit-cost analyses through rules that inhibit an understanding of long-term transformational changes. Such an approach risks overlooking the fundamental purpose of these projects.
We need to get back to viewing major transport schemes as growth and regeneration initiatives, first and foremost. Improved connectivity between our cities, in the form of new or enhanced rail lines and motorways – can be a catalyst for bringing together a wider strategy that links new homes, skills development, energy transmission and inward investment.
Growth corridors, links between cities and towns that have high levels of economic interaction and shared transport connections, offer a framework for achieving this. Within the UK, our analysis suggests there are at least nine primary growth corridors, which account for upwards of 70% of the nation’s population and 75% of economic activity. These corridors have the assets, capacity, and determination to power the next generation of innovation and prosperity.
However, this cannot happen without focused planning and targeted investments. What, then, makes a successful growth corridor plan? Based on our experience, five essential components stand out:
First, articulate a clear economic vision. A coherent strategy should define how transport investments enhance competitiveness by strengthening hubs of business, innovation and employment, connecting people to jobs, supporting freight logistics, growing priority sectors, and driving inward investment in a manner that responds to a region’s unique assets and opportunities. A whole-corridor approach can also unlock capacity on existing road and rail routes.
Second, ‘bake in’ the strategy for catalysing urban development, housing, and regeneration, alongside and fully integrated with planning for the connectivity enhancements. Proactive planning is needed to coordinate development around transport hubs and corridors, sending consistent signals to investors and accelerating the construction of new homes and workplaces. This can include new settlements, urban extensions, and intensification within city centres. Increased density in turn supports demand for enhanced rail and road
connectivity, amplifying agglomeration benefits. This is the essence of the government’s New Towns strategy, which promises to transform regional economies.
Third, growth corridor plans should emphasise preparing local people to make the most of new job opportunities. Planning, design, construction and operation will generate new employment opportunities, and indirect benefits will bring even more jobs within reach.
Because these are long term, transformational projects, they can also provide a lens through which to consider the future economy and job markets, and a framework for inspiring people about career opportunities as well as aligning investment in education, training and careers advice.
Fourth, put skin in the game. Growth corridor plans should adopt innovative funding and finance mechanisms which align the success of a project with the interests of the community. These could include the potential to borrow against increased fare box revenues, local tax increment financing, and the direct development of public land.
Finally, develop robust business cases that align with the spirit of forthcoming changes to the HM Treasury Green Book, which emphasise the importance of outcome-focused, place-based business cases for major projects. This includes holistic consideration of the costs and benefits across transport, regeneration and economic development elements – giving a much truer and richer picture of the case for investment.
At Arup, we have witnessed the power of combining how we plan and deliver mobility, urban development, and growth ambitions. The Liverpool-Manchester Railway is set to become a nationally significant growth project, linking innovation hubs, accelerating housing and regeneration, and enhancing international connectivity. In the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, we are supporting plans that situate transport projects within broader innovation and housing strategies. In the London region, our oversight of the M25 renewal project aims to
facilitate commuting and logistics links along one of Europe’s busiest highways.
We need to get back to the spirit of prior generations, for whom this was an intuitive concept for linking places together more effectively. Growth corridor plans provide a vital framework to coordinate policy and investment, helping towns, cities, and communities produce lasting, inclusive growth.
(Picture: Arup)
