City leaders across the country are optimistic about near-term economic and environmental performance of their cities, but less so about future social outcomes.
Urbis’ 2022 National City Leaders Survey is Australia’s first survey of senior executives from the nation’s most important cityshaping organisations. The survey profiled 40 executives from government, business, academia and third-sector organistions.
It found while 43 per cent of city leaders expect economic results to improve and 42 per cent expect environmental outcomes to improve, only 22 per cent expect social outcomes to improve in our cities.
Thirty per cent of leaders expect things to deteriorate for city inhabitants. Leaders predict economic and environmental results to worsen by 19 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, while net sentiment is good for the environment (+30 per cent) and the economy (+25 per cent) but negative for social outcomes (-7 per cent).
City leaders from smaller capital and regional cities are more optimistic about future performance than their big city counterparts, the report found.
According to the survey, leaders in cities most hit by COVID-19 limitations are less optimistic about near-term economic performance, with mood worse in Sydney (+22 per cent), Melbourne (+4 per cent), and Brisbane (0 per cent). Leaders in Perth (73 per cent) and smaller capital and regional cities (58 per cent) are more upbeat. Perth leaders are notably optimistic about economic performance, with 75 per cent expecting it to increase over the next two years.
The survey also found public sector city leaders to be more upbeat than their private counterparts, with overall net sentiment standing at +12 per cent compared to -20 per cent in the private sector.
The challenges ahead
Maintaining economic development and competitiveness is a primary priority for two-thirds of respondents. Seventy per cent of respondents listed economic growth and competitiveness as their top three challenges.
Grattan Institute Transport and Cities Program Director, Marion Terrill, said this finding is due to the profound impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s economy and talent landscape.
“The pandemic was a significant global shock with economic impacts that city-dwellers have had to navigate, alongside restrictions to immigration and shifts in migration patterns between capital cities and regional areas,” Ms Terrill said.
“What’s important as we recover is to adapt and respond to the world as we now find it. We are going to need to do more with less, given that government budgets are carrying high levels of debt and the interest costs on that debt are substantial. It’s going to be more important than ever to make public investments prudently and with a gimlet-eyed focus on increasing the productive capacity of the economy.”
Managing population and demographic changes (55 per cent) and combating climate change and achieving sustainable development (52 per cent) are the top three most critical problems for cityleaders, while 48 per cent highlight adjusting to changes post-COVID-19. The significant difference between these and the other four problems demonstrates their importance to local authorities.
The importance that city leaders place on the major problems confronting cities varies significantly.
Leaders in Brisbane and Perth place a stronger emphasis on population and demographic change management than leaders in Sydney and Melbourne.
Although city leaders in smaller capital and regional cities consider preserving economic development and competitiveness as a critical problem, controlling population and demographic changes is a top three worry for over 70 per cent of those leaders.
Except for Perth, tackling climate change and providing sustainable development is a top three problem for all cities, with 45 per cent of Brisbane leaders and 60 per cent of leaders from Sydney, Melbourne, and smaller capital and regional cities agreeing. Only 27 per cent of Perth’s city leadersidentified climate change and sustainable development as one of their top problems.
“Cities are major contributors to the climate crisis – consuming 78 per cent of the world’s energy and producing more than 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. With climate change being a key focus on the Government’s 2022-23 Budget, it’s clear that actions undertaken at a city level have significant potential to make a tangible difference to our environment,” Urbis Group Director – Future State James Tuma said.
