Liverpool 'lagging behind others'

Liverpool is a success story, the council says (pic: freefoto.com)

Liverpool is "lagging behind" the rest of England with the slowest growth in the country, a report has claimed.

Despite billions of pounds invested in the city it came bottom of a table assessing the performance of 56 of the country's largest towns and cities.

The table was calculated by think tank Centre for Cities using measures of employment, population and skills.

But Liverpool City Council questioned the report claiming the figures are at least two years out of date.

Council leader Warren Bradley said it failed to reflect the "tremendous growth" of the city in recent years.

Reading topped the list of fastest-growing cities - with York, Bristol, Southampton and Cambridge also featuring in the top five.

We recognise we still have a lot to do but compare the city today with where we were in the 1990s Warren Bradley

Centre director Dermot Finch said that successful cities would need to maintain their "competitive edge" to stay ahead of the pack.

"Meanwhile, lagging cities like Sunderland and Liverpool are struggling to catch up and will need to focus on expanding their business and employment base," he added.

According to Cllr Bradley, Liverpool's position at the bottom of the table masked some important statistics.

"One of the best measures of economic growth is the number of new jobs created," he said.

"The report shows that employment growth in Liverpool was one of the highest of England's largest cities, second only to Sheffield and outstripping even London."

One of the indicators used by the think tank - part of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) - was the unemployment rate from 2005.

'Bright future'

The report claimed that unemployment in Liverpool was running at 7%, although the council said this has since dropped to 5.2%.

"With major developments taking place and billions of pounds being invested in the city unemployment is set to fall further and faster," Mr Bradley said.

Contrary to figures quoted in the report, Liverpool's population has grown every year since 2002 and the number of people on benefit has dropped, said the council leader.

"Liverpool is a success story. We recognise we still have a lot to do but compare the city today with where we were in the 1990s," he added.

"Then we were in the relegation zone of Britain's economic league with devastating levels of unemployment, poverty and industrial dereliction.

"Today Liverpool's outlook has never been brighter."