Professor Michael Parkinson Discusses Liverpool Beyond The Brink

The Baltic Triangle - Business In The Liverpool City Region

In this one off special Liverpool Podcast, Mick Ord speaks to one of UK's leading experts on urban regeneration says the financial challenges faced by Liverpool City Council today are greater than those faced by the Militant Labour council in the 1980's.

Professor Michael Parkinson has just published Liverpool - Beyond the Brink, more than 30 years after Liverpool - On the Brink, written at the height of the council's political struggles with the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher when the city teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.
In the 80's the council were involved in a bitter financial tug of war with the government after what they saw as savage cuts to their budget and their policy of building council houses and sports centres and refusal to make cuts to their budget.

The battle eventually led to the 47 Labour councillors being fined and banned from office by the district auditor.

Professor Parkinson is now Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for civic engagement at the University of Liverpool and Ambassador for the Heseltine Institute for Publicy Policy and Practice.

His new book looks back at how far Liverpool has come over the past 30 years and what needs to be done now to ensure more prosperity comes to the region. Although we've come a long way, he argues we still have some way to go to overcome the financial pressures facing the city and the challenge of Brexit.

In this special edition of the Baltic Triangle podcast Professor Parkinson has been talking to Mick Ord about the hopes,dreams and challenges for the Merseyside region having spent much of his academic career studying the economics of the region.