The Discussion Of Liverpool's Financial Future As YouGov Ponders If COVID-19 Is The End For Cities

Peter Eric Lang Discusses Liverpool's Post-COVID-19 Financial and Investment Future As Polling Giant YouGov Questions If Cities In The UK, Such As Liverpool, Will Decline For Good Due To COVID-19

A map of the Liverpool City Region (Credit: The Liverpudlian/Peter Eric Lang).

YouGov Ponders The End Of Cities Such As Liverpool

Something I never thought I would be writing about is Liverpool ceasing to exist, of course, apart from discussing the mystical fables of the Liver Birds atop The Royal Liver Building.

The polling giant that gains the views and opinions of the public and is used by media companies such as ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC, has questioned if cities in the UK such as Liverpool will survive COVID.

One of YouGov's contributing commentators, John Humphrys, analyses whether cities across the UK will struggle to recover after the COVID-19 Pandemic.

He observes rightly that cities mean vast crowds, and this couldn't be more true for major cities such as the Liverpool City Region, which is densely packed with more than 1.5 Million people residing in The Six Boroughs.

This is a worthy observation as everywhere you go in the Region is packed and not without people. People are being asked to stay in their local areas and stick to their Borough.

For example, areas of the City Region such as the Borough of Wirral has more than 1/3 of its 326,000 population Portside; on the East side of the Borough, with more than 150,000 people densely packed in the waterfront suburbs of Wallasey, Prenton, Tranmere, Rock Ferry, New Brighton and Seacombe.

Whilst COVID-19 may not be utterly destroying Liverpool's suburban shops as people are shopping there more than ever, it is certainly hitting Liverpool City Centre the hardest. The City Council recorded an expected dramatic drop in footfall in the City Centre which is to be expected as the majority of retailers, shops and businesses have temporarily closed and people are asked to work from home.

Humphries said: 'Once cities lose their economic function they go into slow decline. Ask Liverpool. It’s not that vast efforts have not been made to try to maintain its vitality in areas other than its humour.' He continued: 'But it is a constant and difficult effort and no one could claim that the Liverpool of today bears any resemblance whatsoever to the Liverpool of a hundred years or more ago when its status as the greatest port in the world drew the world, from Ireland to China, to come to live in it.'

Liverpool's Financial Future Without The EU

What Humphries states is not untrue, but simultaneously slightly marring. The Liverpool City Region, particularly the City of Liverpool, has gained a lot of funding from the EU, which it will no longer receive, from a phenomenal financial influx of investment into the rejuvenation of cultural, to the attraction of developments such as Liverpool ONE, and the EU funding such as pavements in The Baltic Triangle, renovations and redevelopments in The Commercial District to the EU's 40% funding for The Liverpool Arena which has drove a massive resurgence to the Waterfront. Not to mention the investment in The Hamilton Quarter.

The main issue is where and post-COVID-19 investment comes from. Whilst investment has been put into Liverpool, it has been primarily funneled into the City Centre and not into the numerous areas in the suburbs in the City of Liverpool or the suburbs of the surrounding Boroughs. Although it is true that they all converge on the City Centre, the suburbs are still thriving hubs of small and medium sized businesses that still require investment, infrastructure improvements, connectivity and redevelopment to ensure that they are not left behind.

It is well known that the Liverpool City Region has fought for almost everything and continuously struggled to get support from Central Government for even the most worthy of causes. From not just the truth, but justice over Hillsborough, being ignored over HS2 to the devastating Rock Ferry Explosion that ruined lives was seen as unworthy of Government support.

Now that the City Council or Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will no longer be gaining future financial support from the European Union, which helped pay for all of the aforementioned redevelopments, but also for schemes such as get into work opportunities that helped disadvantaged young people get into the workplace after a lack of opportunities, trying to get on the straight and narrow, or after a period of illness and wanting to get back into the workplace.

Mayor Rotherham's Plans To Future-Proof Liverpool

City Leaders will have to again look to try and persuade Central Government in London that Liverpool is a worthy centre for opportunity and worthwhile of investment.

One of the most senior Liverpudlian leaders is the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, who is looking at making The Six Boroughs a place for significant investment, and to make the Liverpool Region as appealing to the Government as possible for green energy.

Mayor Rotheram is stating that the City Region is the place of opportunity as it is facing the world in a post-Brexit UK, with all five of the world's top shipping lines visiting the city, the expansion of the Port of Liverpool's Seaforth containerisation hub in the Borough of Sefton. As well as other fantastic feats such as the Liverpool Bay Area having the largest wind turbine farm in Europe, which Mayor Rotheram only strives to re-enforce and futureproof by adding the Liverpool Tidal Barrage to the City Region's arsenal.