Call for Evidence
Our Call for Evidence closed on the 16 November 2018, however we will still gladly accept submissions – please read on for details on how to do so.
The work of the UK2070 Commission will be informed by the communications we receive through our Call for Evidence, where policymakers, politicians, and the general public were invited to submit evidence or opinions on the future of city and regional development in the UK.
Our Call for Evidence was based on a number of propositions being put forward by the Commission relating to:
- The nature, extent and causes of the deep-rooted inequalities in the UK.
- The future prospects about risk that these inequalities will persist or worsen.
- The opportunities to redress these inequalities by policies and programmes at different levels of government.
The following questions were asked, grouped into three topics:
Current Conditions
1. What interventions will make a fundamental change in productivity of under-performing economic areas?
2. What cross-cutting criteria could be used to define threshold standards of community well-being?
3. Which decisions are best taken at a national level and which at a city region or wider regional level?
4. What can we learn from international and our own past experiences?
5. What lessons can be drawn from 50 years of policy initiatives to address geographical inequalities?
Future Risks
6. What levels of geographical inequality will persist over the longer term on the basis of current and potential socio-economic trajectories?
7. To what extent will the patterns of inequality be affected by changing external market conditions or government policy?
8. What range of assumptions should be used in framing policies and programmes about the scale of economic performance in disadvantaged parts of the UK?
9. What forms could a UK-bespoke regional and national spatial development programme take?
10. What are the pros and cons of these possible options?
Future Opportunities
11. What range of development programmes or major long-term projects within all regions and nations could be recognised as national priorities?
12. What mechanisms could be introduced to improve the level of and capacity for concerted action across public and private sectors?
13. How can decisions at each level of government be better integrated spatially?
14. What form of national spatial policy for England would be most useful in terms of its content, processes, status and impact, and its relationship to the rest of the UK?
15. Should there be national targets for reducing the differentials in inequality?
16. What actions can be taken within current administrative frameworks to coordinate a shared Vision for the future of the UK?
More detail can be found in our report ‘Call For Evidence’ – which is available for download here.
All were invited to contribute – policymakers; politicians, and the general public – evidence was sought on the nature, causes and solutions to the embedded spatial inequalities across the UK. If you would like to get in touch, contributing can be done in a variety of ways, as indicated below:
Responses may be emailed to:
uk2070commission@turntown.com
Hard copies can be sent to:
FOA UK2070 Commission Secretariat
Turner & Townsend
7th Floor
Pearl House
Friar Lane
Nottingham
NG1 6BT
In 2019 the Commission will undertake:
- A series of deliberative events and citizen panels, which will be held in Spring 2019. These events will be held in different parts of the UK and will feed into the work of the Commission as it conducts its work.
- A series of expert roundtables will also be held. The purpose of these will be to solicit views from local leaders and decision makers across the country. This will play a particularly important role in informing any policy-related recommendations the Commission may make.
- The UK2070 Commission will also hold a National Symposium in Leeds on 13 June 2019 as part of the evidence gathering process.
