NEWSBULLTETIN OCTOBER

IN DEPTH: Using national recovery programmes to add “spice” to

a strong local development “dish”
Case Study of GIJON (Spain) by Paul Soto

Gijón is an attractive port

city of just over a quarter
of a million inhabitants on
the northern Atlantic coast
of Spain.

After a period of rapid

expansion up until the late
seventies, its economy
was devastated by the
restructuring of the steel,
shipbuilding and coal
industries.

In response, the city took

a leading role in
negotiating a series of ambitious strategic plans and pacts for employment
with both local and external actors. The organizations and programmes
developed in this period contributed to a new phase of employment
growth and urban regeneration in the late nineties and early parts of this
century. They also formed the foundation stone for Gijón’s response to the
current crisis.

Gijón has basically applied the Spanish governments two major local
recovery programmes (the E Plans) in a way which “adds seasoning” to its
own pioneering “dish” of local economic development. While maintaining
all the main measures in its own local employment pacts, it has also
increased spending in certain areas to respond to the new needs thrown
up by the crisis.
One of the key points of interest in this case lies precisely in the way in
which sophisticated local development programmes and organizations
have been blended with top down initiatives and external actors to
achieve a mix that puts the city in a better position to face the future. It
remains to be seen how robust this particular mixture will prove to be in
the face of major potential cuts in state expenditure.

In 2008, just before the crisis, the emphasis in Gijón was clearly on
consolidating the development of high tech firms, ensuring that
businesses were able to attract and retain enough skilled labour and, at
the same time, dealing with the unemployment (and low activity rates)
that still existed among young people, women and certain disadvantaged
groups. The days of mass unemployment seemed to have disappeared for
ever.
The severity of the downturn that took place after the summer of 2008
took everyone by surprise. Economic activity contracted by 3.3% in the
region of Asturias in 2009 but employment fell by a massive 9.4%. Even if,
according to most opinions, the region has done better on both counts
than Spain as a whole, action was needed: Such a large and sudden
increase in unemployment has, unsurprisingly, had an impact on social
conditions. In the first quarter of 2009, Caritas said that they received 50%
more requests for support to pay energy bills and buy food.

Gijón has responded in two main ways to the crisis.

Firstly, it has tried to use a series of funds within the Spanish
government’s recovery package (the E Plans) in ways that not only create
short term jobs but also reinforce the underlying competitiveness of the
city’s economy. Under the slogan “Gijón is not standing still”, the city
argued that these national funds provided “seasoning” for an economy
that was inherently strong but losing some of its “taste”. It received €40.5
million in the first tranche from the central government for investing in 40
projects. At the same time city also invested €73.4 million of its own funds
in other projects. It estimates that these projects have created or
maintained 1,500 jobs in the city.

Secondly, the city has increased its own investment in certain measures of
its latest pact for innovation, economic development and employment
(Gijón Innova). The city decided to maintain spending on measures to
increase entrepreneurship and innovation while at the same time
increasing the investment on employment and training. Basically, one of
the main aims of Innova is to help around 500 people per annum through
integrated training and work experience itineraries in private firms, the
municipality, NGO’s and specialized “work insertion companies”. As a
result of the crisis the city expanded the number of places by around 25%
(126 more places), increased its training and opened up the programme to
groups affected by the downturn.

Some aspects of Gijon responses to the crisis can be helpful for other
cities: first of all the way the crisis is used to reinforce city’s strategic
priorities, second the way it built synergy between local development and
key external players, third the way it built a resilient local economy while
at the same time benefitting from high growth knowledge sectors, and
finally the way it created a place with the social and environmental
conditions for economic development.

Read more:

• Gijon responses to the crisis case study – Full text - PDF

• GIJON is partner of the CONET and the FIN-URB-ACT Projects –
URBACT Website
• Case studies Newcastle (UK), Rotterdam (NL), VERIA (Greece),
TURIN (Italy), JYVÄSKYLÄ (Finland)
• At the URBACT Annual Conference a plenary session will be
dedicated to the results of the study. It will be moderated by Debra
Mountford (OECD-LEED) and involve Ms Paz Fernández Felgueroso,
mayor of Gijon (Spain), Ms Haroula Oussoultzoglou, mayor of Veria
(Greece), as well as elected officials from Dublin (Ireland),
Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and Tallinn (Estonia).
INTERVIEW :
Reusing old industrial sites to create
activity: A Vision for the 21st century
city
Interview with Stephen Houghton,
Mayor of Barnsley (UK)

Leadership and powerful new visions are key

starting points to face new paths in local
development for small and middle-sized
towns across Europe. Barnsley, city-partner
of the URBACT Project Creative Clusters in
low density urban areas is rich of these
qualities.
Barnsley (South Yorkshire, UK) has a population of 218,000 (82.000 in
town) and it has a great history as a centre of coal mining. In the
beginning of the 21st century a huge regeneration effort followed in
order to rebuild an economic base that would offer a future for the
people and to eradicate the dereliction left by industrial decline.
Barnsley is contributing to the URBACT Creative Clusters network
through its experience on: re-using old industrial sites for creative
activities; institutionalization of a creative-oriented local development;
branding the creative place; PPP schemes in creative strategies;
networking creative people; art incubators; new digital media cluster;
and supporting tools for creative entrepreneurs.

Mr. Houghton, could you please make a preliminary

assessment of your participation in URBACT?
Involvement in the Creative Clusters Network is a fantastic
opportunity for Barnsley. It will enable us to progress
further our vision for Barnsley as a 21st Century Market
town through learning, sharing of best practice and
opportunities to showcase and develop our plans with like
minded peers. We see this URBACT project as a step
towards a stronger European profile for the town and we
hope to retain and grow links with the other partners in the
network long after the current project has been delivered.
Specific areas in which we could gain knowledge from our
European partners are: enhancing our local cultural agenda
and developing a street life for our town, eco-tourism,
networking our creative local people with local industrial
businesses, assist with providing a creative education for
primary and secondary schools and insight into the digital
media sector to enhance our own.

What is your view regarding creative industries and the city?

To realize our vision of becoming a culturally inspiring 21st Century
Market town, Barnsley faces challenges associated with supporting the
growth and development of the cultural industries sector. These
challenges range from providing adequate transport links to cultural
sites around the borough making them more accessible to raising
awareness for local companies as to what is going on locally within the
sector. The difficulties are in the uncertainty over the level and
timescale of future funding streams and also the fact that the sector is
currently reliant upon a few individuals who are vital to making it
work. The Yorkshire region in which Barnsley is situated boasts similar
local strategies and without funding and the knowledge to develop our
offer, companies could be attracted into developments elsewhere
around the region.

The candidature of Barnsley to the UK City of culture for 2013

was a real challenge for a medium-sized town. How did you
settle this initiative into your strategy promoting a creative
cluster in your city?
At the time of responding, Barnsley has unfortunately not been short
listed for the second stage of bidding for the UK City of Culture
accolade. The creative and artistic work that went into the initial bid
and also the focus on repositioning culture to contribute effectively to
both the economic and social development of Barnsley and its
communities still stands.

Barnsley's creative cluster is about the growth of opportunity for local

people and visitors to the borough to experience a vibrant and
engaging town. It focuses on developing our higher education
community in creative subjects to grow our entrepreneurs of tomorrow;
it is committed to filling and utilizing our managed workspace offer to
both creative and digital businesses. Through the first phase of
Remaking Barnsley we have spent considerable time building and
establishing the corner stones of our physical regeneration
incorporating modern design, space and opportunity to grow business
and embracing the creative and digital agenda to its fullest.

It was also about using culture and creativity to animate, fulfill and
enhance the physical assets created. It was about engaging our local
communities and taking them forward with their town. It was designed
to create jobs, training opportunities and build social capital to invest
in the town's future.

Read more:

• Creative Clusters – URBACT website

• Creative Clusters’ partner cities : Jyvaskyla (Finland), Inteli, Obidos
(Portugal), Catanzaro, Viareggio, Reggio Emilia (Italy),
Hódmezovásárhely (Hungary), Enguera (Spain), Mizil (Romania)
• Creative Clusters: diversifying local economic base and opportunities
to young people - URBACT website
NEWS

REGISTER NOW : URBACT Annual

Conference

The URBACT Annual Conference will take

place in Liege (Belgium), from Tuesday
30 November to Wednesday 1
December.
This interactive event will be introduced
by Johannes Hahn, European
Commissioner responsible for Regional
policy, Charles Picqué, Minister-
President of the Brussels Capital-Region
and Mercedes Caballero, Chairwoman
of the URBACT Monitoring Committee.

You will play an active part in the Conference. In Liege, all participants will
have the opportunity to discuss urban challenges and innovative,
integrated and sustainable solutions. Interactive workshops will focus on
URBACT project inputs. Time will be equally divided: 50% for speakers -
50% for discussions with the audience. A session involving mayors will
highlight the results of the URBACT survey on the impact of the economic
crisis and the responses developed by partner cities.

Discuss with representatives from your country during the URBACT Café
focusing on the improvement of URBACT exchanges in the perspective of
the 3rd call for proposals to be launched in 2011 and the usefulness of a
territorial exchange Programme on urban issues. It will allow people to
meet and exchange in a spontaneous and informal way, with delegates
from their country, in their own language. About 50 tables will host
participants according to their language. Your proposals will be posted in
live on a Conference dedicated website.

• Read more about the Annual Conference

• Register on line for the Annual Conference