Lessons to be learned in a tale of two cities

Published on Monday 22 February 2010 22:02

EDINBURGH should take inspiration from the example of Manchester's recovery from the IRA bombing to help steer the city to a prosperous future.

At a major conference yesterday, business leaders were told the economic downturn caused by the banking crisis offered the opportunity of triggering a new era in the city – but only if a single coherent vision could be agreed.

The summit on the future of Edinburgh, which was instigated by The Scotsman, heard demands for swift action to restore the battered reputation of the city's financial institutions, intensive lobbying to secure high-speed rail links with London and Glasgow, and an urgent need to draw up new blueprints for the city's key regeneration areas.

Calls for a radical new approach were led by Tom Campbell, head of the fledgling business group Essential Edinburgh, who pointed out the city was still working from an old strategy published seven years ago, and that it had been overtaken by the economic downturn.

Addressing the event at The Hub, he said the city was being held back having too many strategies and layers of bureaucracy, as well as a lack of joined-up thinking and "courageous" leadership. He said there was a clear parallel to be drawn between the way Manchester had responded to the IRA bomb in its city centre in 1996 with the chance Edinburgh now had to rethink its future.

However the conference – the first in a series being organised by The Scotsman – was also told the capital's recovery from the banking crisis was integral to its future prosperity, with delegates emphasising the need to attract company HQs and key decision-makers to the city.

There were calls for the creation of a new system to directly elect a mayor of Edinburgh and for the setting up of a new civic forum to help shape a new vision for the city. That got a mixed reaction, with business delegates saying there were already "too many talking shops" and rival agencies discussing overlapping issues.

Mr Campbell struck an optimistic note in his speech, but said Edinburgh's progress was being held back by the lack of a clear vision for the future of the city.

"The city council has strategies by the bucketload, on everything from recycling and public realm, but what is the overall picture we're trying to create?" he said. "We have piles and piles of these reports, but the real key is to try to integrate them into an overall vision. For goodness sake, can't we co-ordinate things a bit better?"

After the conference, Mr Campbell said: "I think it's up to the council and the business community in the city to lead the way forward jointly. It has to be an equal partnership."

And he added: "Although there is no way you could directly compare what happened in Manchester with the collapse of Edinburgh's financial institutions, there is no doubt what happened here has been a wake-up call for the city.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city council's economic development leader, said: "We want Edinburgh to be a world-leader and also to be setting the city agenda for Scotland.

"However, there is a danger that we perhaps talk the city down too much. People don't realise the kind of research that is going on in the life sciences sector within just a few square miles of the city."

Graham Birse, deputy chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said the capital had failed to make a strong enough case for more Scottish Government support.

"I think Edinburgh's traditional reserve has held it back in the past, although that is changing and there is a stronger sense of partnership in Edinburgh now. There are already many forums for discussion in the city, so I'm not sure we need another one right now," he said.

The conference heard the city should try to host an international regulatory summit, encourage the creation of new financial institutions and fight moves to reduce the influence of Lloyds and RBS in the city to help restore the stature of its financial services industry.

Leading financier Ben Thomson, head of think tank Reform Scotland, proposed a joint airport for Edinburgh and Glasgow, and an elected mayor for Scotland's capital.

He said: "We have to realise that the current strategy for RBS and HBOS (as part of Lloyds] will see their focus on Edinburgh and the size of their workforce here diminish. More and more central functions have already moved to London and it is interesting to note that none of the board meetings of either bank are planned for Edinburgh this year."

The conference was told Edinburgh had to start from scratch in its areas of major regeneration after creating failed housing developments and architectural "monsters" around the city.

Architect Malcolm Fraser said there was an urgent need to rethink the city's approach to areas such as Craigmillar, Leith and Granton after the collapse of the housing market and the failure of flagship schemes such as Platinum Point. "The financial model behind these developments is completely bust," he said. "We need to create brand new masterplans for these areas, with their banker's urbanism. They have just not worked."

Mr Fraser said Scotland's capital was being left behind by cities such as Reykjavik, which he said had produced a brilliant masterplan for its regeneration, designed by an architectural practice based in Edinburgh.

Richard Jeffrey, chief executive of TIE, the firm charged by the city council with delivering its multi-million-pound tram scheme, admitted the company had "vastly-underestimated" the communications challenges the scheme would throw up but insisted he could not say how much the project would end up costing or when it would start running. He added: "

There is no doubt the tram will completely transform the way we get about the city and the whole way the city grows and develops in future."

Events guru Pete Irvine said the city had to constantly look to its world-leading festivals, and warned the conference they should not be taken for granted.

He added: "Our film festival is one of the oldest in the world and has a huge impact on the industry internationally, the book festival is a world-class brand leader and almost certainly the most important in Britain, and our Hogmanay party is shown to billions of people every 15 minutes for 18 hours thanks to worldwide TV coverage."