THE Glasgow City Region has been earmarked as becoming an innovation accelerator in the UK Government’s levelling up white paper.
Alongside Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, Westminster will look to create centres for innovation, research and development to drive-up prosperity and opportunities for local people in the areas – each backed by a share of £100 million.
Westminster said the innovation accelerators are inspired by the Stanford-Silicon Valley and MIT-Greater Boston models of combining excellent research with cutting-edge industry in a city-region.
The wider white paper features 12 missions to close the gap between the UK’s highest and lowest performing cities;Â improve educational attainment among children leaving primary school; narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy between the best and worst performing areas of the UK; and close gaps in transport and connectivity.
Planned measures to achieve these goals include bringing local public transport systems ‘much closer’ to London standards; the ‘large majority’ of the UK gaining access to 5G broadband; ‘hundreds of thousands’ more people completing high quality skills training each year; and the number of poor quality rented homes halved.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “From day one, the defining mission of this government has been to level up this country, to break the link between geography and destiny so that no matter where you live you have access to the same opportunities.
“The challenges we face have been embedded over generations and cannot be dug out overnight, but this white paper is the next crucial step.
“It is a vision for the future that will see public spending on R&D increased in every part of the country; transport connectivity improving; faster broadband in every community; life expectancies rising; violent crime falling; schools improving; and private sector investment being unleashed.
“It is the most comprehensive, ambitious plan of its kind that this country has ever seen and it will ensure that the government continues to rise to the challenge and deliver for the people of the UK.”
