The Economic Geography of the Gatwick Diamond Hugo Bessis and Adeline Bailly October, 2017 1 Centre for Cities The economic geography of the Gatwick Diamond • October, 2017 About Centre for Cities Centre for Cities is a research and policy institute, dedicated to improving the economic success of UK cities. We are a charity that works with cities, business and Whitehall to develop and implement policy that supports the performance of urban economies. We do this through impartial research and knowledge exchange. For more information, please visit www.centreforcities.org/about About the authors Hugo Bessis is a Researcher at Centre for Cities
[email protected] / 0207 803 4323 Adeline Bailly is a Researcher at Centre for Cities
[email protected] / 0207 803 4317 Picture credit “Astral Towers” by Andy Skudder (http://bit.ly/2krxCKQ), licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) Supported by 2 Centre for Cities The economic geography of the Gatwick Diamond • October, 2017 Executive Summary The Gatwick Diamond is not only one of the South East’s strongest economies, but also one of the UK’s best performing areas. But growth brings with it a number of pressures too, which need to be managed to maintain the success of the area. This report measures the performance of the Gatwick Diamond relative to four comparator areas in the South East, benchmarking its success and setting out some of the policy challenges for the future. The Gatwick Diamond makes a strong contribution to the UK economy. It performs well above the national average on a range of different economic indicators, such as its levels of productivity, its share of high-skilled jobs, and its track record of attracting foreign investment.