JIBS Professor to save the city of Landskrona

08 May 2009 | Posted By: JIBS Stories

In the middle of the 90s quite a few northwestern communities in Skåne were afraid of being left in the shadow of the city of Malmö when the bridge between Malmö/Skåne and Copenhagen/Denmark was  built. They turned to Åke E. Andersson, professor in Economics at Jönköping International Business School, and asked him to look for risks and opportunities.

- I came to the solution that the whole western part of Skåne could grow into a common labour market under certain circumstances. The building of attractive homes had to be accelerated. Another important factor was the expansion in educational activities, says professor Andersson.

And the communities followed the advice. The amount of people commuting to their homes on the west coast of Skåne is increasing all the time, as are the students at Campus Helsingborg. Helsingborg has developed quite a few attractive homes and living areas and has become a popular place for people to live, whether they are studying or working in Helsingborg or elsewhere.

Landskrona on the other hand still is in the shadows of the close by cities, such as for example Helsingborg, who took almost all initiatives stated in the investigation report of the 90s.

Landskrona didn’t use the big advantage of building new home areas despite its excellent position on the shores of Öresund in between Malmö and Helsingborg.

Another big difference on behalf of Landskrona was the quick reduction of industrial power when the ship yard industry disappeared and unemployment rates hit the ceiling, says Ã…ke E. Andersson, who last year was asked to start a development plan for Landskrona.

The plan will include the building of 1.500 new homes close to the shores with a sea view and restoration of old apartment houses in the city centre,

It will also affect business life; what and how it should be developed from now and up to 2020.

There is also an urgent need for a structural change when it comes to taxation, dependence on subsidies but also attitudes and values not least among the younger generations.

Similar development plans have been done at the department of economics before for cities like Jönköping, Södertälje and Linköping/Norrköping.

The report will be ready and presented to the authorities in November 2009.

Source: Helsingborgs Dagblad

By Magnus Arvidsson, translated by Kristina Hugander.

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