Top 25 UK Cities ranked by spatial connectivity

[Irwell]

Position	Connectivity	City			Strata
1		1.0000		London			I
2		0.7127		Manchester		II
3		0.6739		Birmingham		II
4		0.6596		Leeds			II
5		0.5694		Bristol			III
6		0.5382		Glasgow			III
7		0.4918		Edinburgh		III
8		0.4002		Cardiff			IV
9		0.3591		Newcastle upon Tyne	IV
10		0.3363		Belfast			IV
11		0.2999		Liverpool		V
12		0.2975		Nottingham		V
13		0.2850		Reading			V
14		0.2617		Southampton		V
15		0.2611		Cambridge		V
16		0.2398		Aberdeen		V
17		0.2103		Milton Keynes		V
18		0.1785		Sheffield		VI
19		0.1692		Crawley-Gatwick		VI
20		0.1575		Norwich			VI
21		0.1540		Leicester		VI
22		0.1377		St Albans		VI
23		0.1348		Ipswich			VI
24		0.1158		Northampton		VI
25		0.1126		Oxford			VI

[Bachy Soletanche]

London's doing well in the london links isn't it?

[Irwell]

Not quite sure why Manchester and London are the only European spine cities in the UK.

[Boards]

Manchester will always come out top after London in these surveys due to having the North's only major international airport - Manchester gets high marks due to its international air links and get high marks regarding connectivity to other UK cities as they need the links to get to Manchester to use the airport. It would be a different story if the airport wasn't within the city boundary and another city was benefitting from an airport where over three quarters of passengers arent from of going to the host city, but Manchester got its arse in gear while Liverpool and West Yorkshire/South Yorkshire particularly where quite happy until recently with their piffling little airfields, its actually quite amazing to the degree they let Manchester develop to their detriment. Kudos to Manchester.

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by Boards

Manchester will always come out top after London in these surveys due to having the North's only major international airport - Manchester gets high marks due to its international air links and get high marks regarding connectivity to other UK cities as they need the links to get to Manchester to use the airport. It would be a different story if the airport wasn't within the city boundary and another city was benefitting from an airport where over three quarters of passengers arent from of going to the host city, but Manchester got its arse in gear while Liverpool and West Yorkshire/South Yorkshire particularly where quite happy until recently with their piffling little airfields, its actually quite amazing to the degree they let Manchester develop to their detriment. Kudos to Manchester.

This is to do with advanced producer services within the cities and the connections between them, not to do with transportation.

[Boards]

You will have to explain that as I dont have a scooby what that means. Do both tables relate to these 'advanced producer services?'

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by Boards

You will have to explain that as I dont have a scooby what that means. Do both tables relate to these 'advanced producer services?'

Yes. Basically they take all organisations involved in advanced producer services (finance, media, etc.), weight those organisations based on their importance, weight the offices in each city based on their importance within the organisation, measure the cities with whom those offices have links and then calculate a connectivity value.

[Wendigo Wendigo]

I've never said this before on the internet but WTF?

[Boards]

Sounds easy What determines whether one company is more important than another? Whats more important - having many offices of multinational corporations or very large offices of local, globally less important companies that employ many more people contributing much more to local GDP? Just for example a lot of English companies with huge English markets dont trade in Scotland but there are Scottish equivalents servicing Scotland but given their smaller market they could be perceived as much smaller companies - many of these smaller companies will employ many people and contribute to the local economy as significantly as the office of whatever 'more important' company in England. It is an interesting table though for looking at which city have major offices of large companies based in their city's though.

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by Boards

Sounds easy What determines whether one company is more important than another? Whats more important - having many offices of multinational corporations or very large offices of local, globally less important companies that employ many more people contributing much more to local GDP? Just for example a lot of English companies with huge English markets dont trade in Scotland but there are Scottish equivalents servicing Scotland but given their smaller market they could be perceived as much smaller companies - many of these smaller companies will employ many people and contribute to the local economy as significantly as the office of whatever 'more important' company in England. It is an interesting table though for looking at which city have major offices of large companies based in their city's though.

These figures are demonstrative, so don't assume they actually relate to anything, but it's a good example of how the system would work.

Royal Bank of Irwell:-
Value: 100
Branches: 4
Branch size: equal
Value per branch: 25
City of Irwell branch value: 25
City of Mersey link value: 25
City of Tyne link value: 0 (no link)
City of Thames link value: 0 (no link)
Value to City of Irwell: 50

Royal Bank of Boards:-
Value: 50
Branches: 2
Branch size: duh
Value per branch: 25
City of Boards branch value: 25
City of Mersey link value: 25
Value to City of Boards: 50

As you can see, the Royal Bank of Boards is half the size of the Royal Bank of Irwell, but the Royal Bank of Boards is more integrated with the City of Boards than the Royal Bank of Irwell is with the City of Irwell. Incidentally, based on the above the City of Mersey would score 100 (excluding any possible links with the City of Tyne or the City of Thames).

[DonWarrington]

Originally Posted by Boards

Manchester will always come out top after London in these surveys due to having the North's only major international airport - Manchester gets high marks due to its international air links and get high marks regarding connectivity to other UK cities as they need the links to get to Manchester to use the airport. It would be a different story if the airport wasn't within the city boundary and another city was benefitting from an airport where over three quarters of passengers arent from of going to the host city, but Manchester got its arse in gear while Liverpool and West Yorkshire/South Yorkshire particularly where quite happy until recently with their piffling little airfields, its actually quite amazing to the degree they let Manchester develop to their detriment. Kudos to Manchester.

That's not true.

The government decided the north only needed one international airport years ago. I was told it was supposed to Speke, but at the last minute they designated Ringways. Or so a scouser once said

Had the aviation industry grown according to market forces, the main northern cities would each have small international airports based on the needs of the population they serve. Rather than one enormous one and a few tiddlers

Oh, and this report is about travel and interconnectivity. His data comes from this http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/748/Uniting-Britain.pdf

The reason Manchester is a spine city is because of the weird airport situation in the North

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by DonWarrington

That's not true.

The government decided the north only needed one international airport years ago. I was told it was supposed to Speke, but at the last minute they designated Ringways. Or so a scouser once said

Had the aviation industry grown according to market forces, the main northern cities would each have small international airports based on the needs of the population they serve. Rather than one enormous one and a few tiddlers

Oh, and this report is about travel and interconnectivity. His data comes from this http://www.rtpi.org.uk/download/748/Uniting-Britain.pdf

The reason Manchester is a spine city is because of the weird airport situation in the North

Firstly, my information came from GaWC, not from the page you linked to. Secondly, it has nothing to do with airports, it's to do with advanced producer services within the economy.

[DonWarrington]

"Spatial connectivity" has nothing to do with airports and is to do with "advanced producer services within the economy"?

Fair enough

[Boards]

I shall return to this later, I have a dog to walk.

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by DonWarrington

"Spatial connectivity" has nothing to do with airports and is to do with "advanced producer services within the economy"?

Fair enough

Yes, the context of the spatial connectivity is organisational and sub-organisational inter-city connections within the advanced producer services sector.

[Irwell]

In fact the GaWC report specifically mentions the report you linked to:

"The RTPI (2006) report does not encompass any data on inter-city business interactions and flows. Thus from our theoretical position, it is the latest attempt to map UK spaces of places and as such cannot provide a relevant framework for policy and planning under conditions of contemporary globalization."

[Chogmook]

A Manchester/Liverpool International airport was proposed at the old Burtonwood Airfield near Warrington, which is now becoming the huge Omega business park.

[crusty_bint]

What does "Strata" signify in the table of the first post?

[Irwell]

Originally Posted by crusty_bint

What does "Strata" signify in the table of the first post?

It divides cities into groups based on their relative levels of spatial connectivity. Think of it like city "leagues". The cluster table shows these in slightly more detail, with Manchester edging towards stratum 1, Cardiff edging towards stratum 2, etc.

[crusty_bint]

Ah right... how obvious was that.. doh. Cheers