A REPORT into the possibility of Wrexham achieving city status has detailed a lack of evidence of its socio-economic benefits.

Alongside other towns, Wrexham has an opportunity to be granted city status as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

However, a report by Wrexham Council looking at the potential economic benefits to Wrexham from a successful city status bid has found very little, and in some cases no evidence of any.

The report compared several new cities, existing cities, unsuccessful bidders and other towns across the UK to examine their respective socio-economic growth.

While study found no negative impacts from having city status, neither did it find that the towns awarded city status have experienced economic growth which had been accelerated by the awarding of city status.

The report looked at five cities that have been awarded city status since 2002: Newport, Perth, and Stirling which received city status in 2002; and Chelmsford and Preston which received city status in 2012.

These are the most similar to Wrexham of the nine cities that have been awarded city status since 2000.

The report found that based on these case studies, there is no evidence that having city status boosts population, jobs or the general local economy.

It also compared the five new cities to past bidders, existing cities over a longer period and existing towns.

The study found that those with new city status, while experiencing growth, performed worse than some of the comparator groups when it came to economic growth.

Cities and past bidders experienced an increase in jobs of approximately 18 per cent, whilst new cities and towns saw a rise of 14 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.

Between 2000 and 2018 gross value added (the measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area) increased in all four of the groups.

None exceeded the overall rate of growth in Great Britain. Despite varying annual changes over the period, past bidders and new cities ended up with almost the same overall levels of growth

over the full period, and this was higher than for cities and towns.

However, the report did find that the comparative case studies shows that areas which have been successful in gaining city status identify benefits including:

  • Helping to boost local pride which, in turn, may have economic benefits
  • Providing a new platform to promote the city and raise ambitions
  • Creating opportunities for anchor institutions, economic clusters, and sectors to raise their profile
  • Enabling some cities to attract major projects such as a university and enterprise zone, which they might not otherwise have secured as towns
  • Perceived successes in attracting inward investment - attributed to city awareness and the infrastructure and facilities they offer e.g. business incubator, high-profile local businesses and organisations, alongside city status
  • Higher expectations of placemaking with cities thought of as more vibrant places to live, work, and invest
  • Cities with an accessible rural hinterland are seen as very attractive places