Last week was a particularly interesting one in the business life of the city of York.

Firstly, there was publication of the important report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) entitled State Of The English Cities.

Who would have thought, just ten years ago, that there would be such positive comment on York in this authoritative, 250-page report?

Numerous positive statements about the city's record in social equality, educational provision, quality of life, employment and economic development abound.

One economic measure commonly used to assess performance is "gross value added" (GVA). This measures the difference between the value of goods and services produced and the cost of raw materials and other inputs that are used up in production.

Using this indicator, the report concludes that: "Outside the south and east the main cities leading the national economy were Bristol, Leeds, York, Manchester, Leicester and Peterborough."

Again, in terms of increasing the proportion of the population with degree level qualifications: "Outside the south and east the only cities that exceeded the average English growth rate were York, Nottingham and Leeds." And: "York stands apart from everywhere else in the north and west with low worklessness."

I could go on because there is more, but you get the general drift.

Now this sort of document, while valuable, mainly reports statistics, with little analysis of what led to the recorded position or comment about future directions. That is where some of York's other events over the past few days have relevance.

An event that passed by last week, with less public notice than it warranted, was conferment of the title of Honorary Freemanship of the City of York on the former University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Ron Cooke, by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Janet Greenwood. In her supporting address, Councillor Sue Galloway (on behalf of an indisposed Steve Galloway) said that Sir Ron was "one of the few people who could claim to have changed the face of York".

Here we get a clue as to why the English Cities report puts York generally in such a favourable light. Ten years ago, York was looking at job shortfalls during the early years of the 21st century but, as the report points out, the city currently has a relatively high employment rate.

This cannot be unrelated to the dramatic growth in the university's contribution to the local economy, both directly and indirectly through such successful initiatives as Science City York.

"Some small cities with universities are among the strongest in 1997-2003 - Oxford, Cambridge and York.

"They also feature among the cities with the highest upward shift between the two periods," states the report, while also recording that York is behind only Cambridge and Oxford in its share of Higher Education Funding Council research funds per capita in 2005-06.

The close correlation between the success of a research-led university and growth of the economy is now increasingly recognised regionally, nationally and internationally. That is why the university and the Science City Partnership has been so important in helping to facilitate some of the successes recorded for York in the English Cities report.

It is also why it is crucially important that such initiatives are developed and strengthened. This leads me on to the final event last week: the launch of this year's Festival of Science and Technology, organised by Science City York. Celebrity chef, and local lad made good, James Martin, gave a challenging talk, highlighting the science behind cuisine, to a packed auditorium at the new National Science Learning Centre, an £11 million purpose-built centre at the University of York and the only one of its kind in the world.

So the English Cities report reflects well on York but the good work done by Science City over the past few years will need to be strengthened and expanded still further to keep the economy competitive into the future. That is our challenge!

Updated: 10:27 Wednesday, March 15, 2006