Leeds Lays Claim To a Position As One of Britain’s Leading Service Centres. What is the basis for this claim? How justified is it? What are the problems involved in following a service orientated strategy?

        A walk around Leeds today gives weight to the city laying claim to a position as one of Britain’s leading service centres; the streets are lined with shops, retail outlets, hotels, leisure and entertainment services, and the skyline is encroached significantly by the tall office blocks of the many financial and business companies operating in the city.  Whether the city is following a service oriented strategy or not is debateable but what is obvious is that the service sector is playing an ever increasing role in the economy of the city.

        Evidence of this lays firstly in employment figures in Leeds.  The last few decades have seen a decline in industrial and manufacturing employment and a rise in service sector employment.  In fact only 16% of the population of Leeds are employed in the service sector, that’s 276 700 people (Source:Leeds Economic Handbook 2000).  Other employment changes have included an increase in part time and female employment, and a decline in opportunities for men, employment patterns most associated with the service sector.

        Such facts and figures justify the claim but there are other basis for this claim.  The second is the growth in business and financial services.  In fact Leeds is considered the most important financial centre outside London (Leeds Economic Handbook 2000).  Although “the region has diversified its base to include growth in small to medium sized enterprises, call centres, electronics, media and financial and professional sectors”, “the majority of industries experiencing growth are in the service sector” (Leeds In Depth, 2000:12).

        Other evidence includes the growth in new and refurbished leisure facilities, retail, hotels and catering in the city centre and along the waterfront, and how this has stimulated further investment, like the substantial private and public investment seen in the 1990s.  In addition to this “according to a recent report by the property consultant Healey and Baker, Leeds is ranked the second most highly rated city to shop in” (Leeds In Depth 2000:15).

        All these points and evidence of Leeds, service oriented economy, and perhaps indeed to the claim that Leeds is one of Britain's leading service centres.  However evidence from the Annual Employment Survey would suggest otherwise.  Figures show Leeds to rank only fifth or sixth place in total employment in service sectors such as finance and business services, and distribution and hotels.  This is behind the cities of London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Liverpool.  Such evidence would imply that Leeds is not in fact a leading British service centre.  However when assessing the data for knowledge intensive services such as media, advertising, consultancy, high street banking and legal services, Leeds ranks third behind Bristol and Manchester.  This just shows that although Leeds is not a leading centre in overall services, it is in fact a leading centre in certain fields of the service sector.

        Following a service oriented strategy does, however, have its problems.  The first of these is in employment. The service sector stereotypically provides mostly part time work, and is very much a female dominated industry.  The Leeds Economic Handbook predicted that the economic activity rate of men in Leeds is set to decline and indeed the same to happen to the rate of people aged 50 – retirement, as the services are associated with younger employees.  Also many of the forms of employment within the service sector are unskilled or menial placements.  This means that many people will be forced to take jobs that under utilise their skills.  Particularly a problem in Leeds where much of the workforce is skilled, operatives or former manufacturers.

        Another problem is that a service oriented strategy is in real terms a relatively low wage economy.  This is partly because many firms, particularly in Leeds financial sector, are national or international firms, with Head Offices outside Leeds.  Meaning profits are often taken out of the Leeds economy and spent elsewhere.  Also some companies may bring in specialist staff from other areas providing no high wage employment to the local area. For example PricewaterhouseCoopers has brought many of its partners up from London to Leeds instead  of providing Leeds accountants with the opportunity to further their careers.

The service sector is not just problematic.  Indeed in Leeds it has led to an improvement in the built environment “changes in the fabric of the city-retail sites, new office buildings, refurbishment of old and redundant property, conversion flats and infrastructure development” (Leeds In Depth, 2000:14).  The sector’s ability to attract investment is definitely one of its saving graces.

In conclusion I would agree that Leeds is following a service oriented strategy, and that in certain aspects of the industry, for example the financial sector, the city truly is one of Britain’s leaders.  To say Britain is one of Britain’s leading service centres is not strictly wrong.  There are four or five centres that have a stronger claim than Leeds but the margins are slim, and Leeds is expected to grow quite rapidly over the next few years.  I would predict that in the future Leeds will be a more important national centre and a British leader.  Following a service sector strategy provides rapid growth and investment but is problematic with its patterns of employment and the redistribution of profits.

Bibliography:

• R. Unsworth, Interpreting Uurban Landscapes, lecture notes 2001, available on Leeds University Website.
• Leeds Training and Enterprise Council, Leeds In Depth, 2000, Economic and Labour Market Research Team, Leeds.
• Leeds City Council, Leeds Economic Handbook 2000, Leeds
•  D. Fraser, A History of Modern Leeds, 1980, Manchester University Press, Manchester.