Case Study

Ideopolis: knowledge city-regions - Newcastle case study  explores Newcastle’s strengths, challenges and opportunities within the framework of the nine Ideopolis drivers. It makes policy recommendations and shows what other cities can learn from Newcastle’s experience.

Key findings include:

• Physical knowledge city: Newcastle-Gateshead has a strong quality of life offering and has benefited immensely from physical regeneration, especially the ‘iconic’ Angel of the North, the Sage arts centre and the BALTIC art gallery.
• Building on what’s there: Following the decline of traditional industry, Newcastle has had successes in building on other assets, including the public sector and higher education. The challenge is to ensure that the city is proactive in using its assets to attract funding and inward investment.
• High skill organisations: Skill levels in Newcastle are above the national average, however the wider region is lagging behind. Newcastle-Gateshead needs to focus on attracting high-skill organisations to retain talent.
• Vibrant education sector::The education sector in Newcastle is critical to the city’s development and future economic success and the city needs a “better infrastructure to exploit university knowledge into jobs and companies”.
• Leadership around a knowledge city vision: Partnership working between Newcastle and Gateshead is working well, but there is a need for stronger governance at a city-region level.
• Investing in communities: Communities in Newcastle-Gateshead are polarised: “social regeneration is the slowest at the moment”. And this represents a significant challenge to future growth.