Experts Predict ‘Super’ Future for Liverpool

The HSBC Future of Business report supposes that supercities and regions will derive their status and income from new income streams such as biotechnology and stem cell research.

The study says that Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Brighton, London and Newcastle will re-invent themselves over the coming 20 years and that north/south divide will swing in favour of the north as London's economic harvest fades.

According to the research - which interviewed more than 500 entrepreneurs and company directors - competition and high living costs in the south will increasingly persuade entrepreneurs and businesses to move north.

Liverpool, for example, is set to become a centre of excellence in stem cell research, while Manchester is tipped as a leader in robotics.

Job creation by self-employed people is already much higher in the north, with northerners employing 3.5 million people on average, compared with 2.6 million in the south.

Raymond explained: "The results promise to change the traditional national and regional power bases because of their proximity to the one thing that does not depend on natural resources… knowledge."

The current mood, he believes, suggests that it is as important to gain from ideas, knowledge and intellectual resources as it is to profit from trading in real products and tangible assets.

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