Across advanced economies, national averages mask widening divides within countries. Big metros power ahead while many towns and smaller regions struggle to keep up. Our recent UK-Japan study with the City-Region Economic Development Institute (City-REDI) looks squarely at this problem through two ‘second city’ regions – Birmingham/the West Midlands (United Kingdom) and Osaka/Kansai (Japan) – and finds durable institutions, functional regional geographies, flexible finance, and open learning loops are the levers that turn strategy into outcomes.
Institutions that last longer than political cycles
When shocks hit, places with clear mandates and accountable leadership adapt fastest. England’s “trailblazer” devolution deals are instructive: the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) now operates a single, multi-year settlement managed like a department’s budget, bringing the stability needed to prioritise and make trade-offs over several years rather than several months.
To read the rest of the blog, please visit the OECD blog.
This blog was written by Jeff Matsu, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). CIPFA is a delivery partner of the LPIP Hub.