Never mind Cannes – the real challenge is global

To those of you who didn’t or never go, I need say no more than its prime attractions were vodka, leggy blondes and models of mega-developments that might, or might not, get built.

It represented all that is profligate about property, sure enough, but it also emphasised a point. That is that in the race to win investment, whether in the form of big business, developers or even buy-to-let homebuyers, the competition has gone global, and the stakes have risen. Manchester no longer competes against its traditional national and continental counterparts; now it is battling it out against Bratislava and Mumbai.

It’s an unfair contest. Such locations offer global investors lightweight regulatory constraints and heavyweight profit potential. So what can UK towns and cities do to compete?

Some, like Liverpool are giving themselves the hard sell. Liverpool is using culture as a Unique Selling Point, not only for 2008, when it will be European City of Culture, but beyond, as the city’s culture-guru Loyd Grossman explains on page 20, in this issue’s special nine-page Mipim section. UK towns and cities should also be gearing themselves up now to make sure that they get the most out of Jessica, the new European funding model, featured on page 16.

But whatever the approach, there is a fundamental that towns and cities need to pursue: partnership. We all hear the good news stories of how public and private sector have worked successfully together. But we also know the failures, the regeneration deals that founder because of differences of culture, protectionism or downright greed.

The price of failure is becoming too high for the UK, as chancellor Gordon Brown has often said. The chancellor is also fond of quoting John F Kennedy’s statement that the old declaration of independence has to be superseded by a declaration of interdependence. Brown applies it to the global market, to how we can work with partners in other countries, which is a good idea but perhaps a step too far yet for regeneration. Interdependence has to start at home.