Middlesbrough – Merrion Strategy

The doctrine of ‘managed decline’ still holds in some American cities, but was given short shrift in the UK by Margaret Thatcher and Michael Heseltine. Good job, too, suggests Merrion Strategy MD Dougal Paver. ‘Right-sizing’ – the sort of euphemism for which Bullshit Bingo was invented. And when players in Detroit shout ‘house!’ the irony is painful, for right-sizing is the city’s […]

Cities

Successful cities teeter on the brink of failure

Some of the world’s most successful cities are succeeding just a little too much and policy-makers are struggling to keep the whole show from falling apart. From Berlin to Barcelona, Venice to Dublin, it’s all getting a little bit fraught. Dougal Paver takes a look at the issue. Venice had a population of 134,000 in 1931. Now it stands at […]

Public transport: it’s all in the numbers

The scale and quality of public transport provision in a city matters most where its economy is growing like Topsy. Just examining the raw data doesn’t tell you the whole picture, argues Merrion MD Dougal Paver. We love a good map or chart here at Merrion Towers. Geography ‘O’ level: it never leaves you. And so I had to dive […]

Economy

The Northern Powerhouse’s surprise package

Here at Merrion Towers we love charts and graphs that cast a light on the quirky, unusual or just downright interesting. And those fine fellows at City Metric have come up trumps with the one above. So, which economy in the Northern Powerhouse do you think is the daddy-o? One of the great ruses in PR is to offer the […]

The London economy proves Britain’s enduring appeal

London’s commercial property market is thriving, confounding the nay-sayers. Merrion Strategy managing director Dougal Paver examines the health of the UK economy and asks if the market has already priced in our departure from the EU. A single quarter’s office take-up does not an economic summer make. So when JLL’s latest London office survey hit the desks yesterday morning the […]

Entrepreneurialism

The enterprise conundrum

A look at the data on new enterprise start-ups paints a very mixed picture, says Merrion MD Dougal Paver. Should government do more to help, or would lower taxes and light-touch regulation suffice? Britain’s start-up culture is alive and well, running at well over half a million new companies a year, on average. We’re almost at full employment so there’s […]

Competitive socialising: regeneration’s new Golden Goose

When he was a student Merrion Strategy’s MD Dougal Paver well remembers the odd competitive drinking session or two, but ‘competitive socialising’? That requires some investigating… My first illegal pint was in a pub called the Craven Heifer in Ingleton, North Yorkshire. Myself and a load of pals had hitch-hiked up there, aged 16, for a week’s camping and fishing on […]

Governance

Dublin's housing crisis shows no signs of abating

Ireland’s housing crisis won’t be fixed any time soon

Ireland’s housing crisis is harming the country’s competitiveness, just at a time when it hopes to exploit whatever advantages Brexit may bring. Clumsy government intervention means it won’t be solved any time soon, however. Merrion MD Dougal Paver takes a look at what’s happening over the water. When your author spent three years knocking around Dublin in the late eighties […]

The ambition pill: has your local authority taken it?

Ambition, focus and a credible plan can excite developers and investors and get them in step behind a local authority to deliver on its economic growth agenda. But relatively few authorities are in the right place culturally, suggests Merrion MD Dougal Paver. The backdrop fitted the aspiration as councillor Phil Davies, leader of Wirral Council, stood up yesterday morning to address […]

Regeneration

CVAs stack the odds against landlords – and are harming the British High Street

Company Voluntary Arrangements – CVAs – are a means by which retailers can stave off bankruptcy by seeking creditors’ support for the reduction of their debt burden. But whilst such moves may protect jobs, as retailers claim, some say they are being abused to help retailers duck out of lease agreements voluntarily entered in to. Merrion MD Dougal Paver looks […]

The competitor to the Liveprool Commonwealth Games bid

Is Boston’s Olympics knock-back a lesson for the Liverpool Commonwealth Games bid?

Boston secured America’s Olympics nomination for the 2024 games in January 2015. By the summer the city had pulled out in the face of a quiet public revolt. What lessons does it hold for Liverpool and Birmingham as they bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games? Merrion MD Dougal Paver explores the issue. Boston: wealthy, sophisticated, beautiful and smart. A […]