Provincial cities need to be empowered Sitting in Parliament for a great northern city, Nick Clegg is well placed to see the imbalance in the British economy. As the Deputy Prime Minister said in his speech at the Mansion House last night, London contains 13 per cent of the country's population but is responsible for more than a fifth of its total output. The capital's dynamism and diversity will always act as a magnet for talent and enterprise. But there is great potential in our provincial cities - once powerhouses of commerce and industry - that needs to be released again. The question is: how? Mr Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, believes that handing more power to the cities is one answer. Not only is London dominant economically but politically, too. Decisions are taken in Westminster and Whitehall that have little relevance to Liverpool or Manchester. But, equally, when the cities have been offered greater devolution - either in the form of regional autonomy or directly elected mayors - there have been few takers. More than that, the huge amounts of public money thrown at the regions, especially since the collapse of their manufacturing base in the Eighties, has worsened the imbalance. Whereas London has been able to withstand the worst ravages of the recession because its economy is largely private-sector driven, cities reliant on state spending have found it far harder. One of the biggest tasks they face is to break with the hand-out culture that has taken grip over the past 30 years. It is a striking fact that during the boom decade between 1998 and 2008, cities such as Birmingham and Nottingham actually saw their private-sector workforces shrink. The answer to regional decline, in other words, is emphatically not more public spending. The Government's decision to let councils keep part of the business rate that has previously gone to the Treasury is a step in the right direction, since it is a reward for encouraging more companies to set up. In addition, an independent economic review of the North East now being undertaken by Lord Adonis, the former Labour Cabinet minister, is expected to recommend giving cities more responsibility for transport and education policy, in exchange for the councils forming a combined authority rather than competing with each other. We do not have to look far to see the templates for how towns and cities can act together as metropolitan economic hubs. In France, the communautés urbaines exercise significant delegated powers over waste, water, public transport, roads, economic development and the environment. German, Spanish and Italian cities do the same. So should ours.