Forget Manchester, Rotherham offers a lesson in ‘good growth’

To achieve genuine regional growth, the government s devolution agenda must focus on improving firm-level productivity and transforming industrial structures rather than relying on surface-level infrastructure projects, says Paul Ormerod Andy Burnham’s government is attracting a lot of criticism in the media. Its apparent focus is on lots of rather trivial matters whilst major issues are kicked down the road. But the government does have at least one clearly articulated important policy aim, and that is one of devolution. Actions are already underway with regions which already have Mayors. Plans are being drawn up to establish similar structures across England more generally. The belief is that this will be a key way to achieve the aim of the government of generating “good growth in every postcode”. I wrote four weeks ago, citing the example of education under the Welsh government as an example, that the policy is not without risk. But this was basically caused by incompet