The Planner:
Brexit will hit southern UK cities hardest ? report
27 July 2017
Cities that are successful and have large high-skilled service sectors, mainly located in the south of England, will be hit the hardest by Brexit, whether it is ‘hard’ or ‘soft’. A report by think tank Centre for Cities and the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics (LSE) also says these cities are better placed to adapt to the economic shocks ahead compared with less affluent places that are less directly affected by Brexit. The report considers the impact both a soft and hard Brexit might have on British cities in the 10 years following new trade arrangements with the EU being implemented. Researchers say a hard Brexit would bring an average reduction of 2.3 per cent in economic input across all UK cities compared with a soft Brexit, which would result in a 1.2 per cent decrease. Whether the UK gets a hard or soft Brexit, the report suggests, cities that are doing economically well – predominantly in the south of England – would be hit the most directly and the hardest.
Related publications
‘The Local Economic Effects of Brexit’, Swati Dhingra, Stephen Machin and Henry Overman, CEP Brexit Analysis Paper No.10, July 2017
http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/brexit10.pdf
‘Brexit, Trade and the Economic Impacts on UK Cities’, Naomi Clayton and Henry Overman, Centre for Cities briefing, July 2017