MORE power must be devolved to smaller towns and cities to ensure Warrington's growth can be followed in other regions across the north, a leading think-tank has declared.

The town made it into the top 10 of the country's most successful 'cities' in Centre for Cities' annual report exposing the economic climate across 64 of the biggest places in the UK.

The findings point to smaller areas falling behind their neighbours and following on from further research, IPPR North believe the warning signs cannot be taken lightly.

“Ranking of smaller towns and cities only paints a partial picture of the complex connections between them," said director of the think-tank, Ed Cox.

"Our research shows that smaller towns and cities play different roles within a wider city region.

"While the strongest growth may be in big cities, smaller towns and cities can play vital supporting roles as logistics centres, as hubs of economic specialism or by providing nearby amenity and recreation.

“With more devolved powers, cities have the potential to work more creatively with those places in their hinterlands to stop them falling further behind - not doing so will have a drag on the whole city region."

Mr Cox also highlighted the need for a 'decade of devolution' to create prosperity in all parts of the country.

“This report shows that we cannot afford to leave behind smaller towns and cities in attempts to rebalance the economy," he added.

"It reveals the troubling extent to which areas outside of big cities are falling behind their near neighbours.

“Not only does poor growth outside of big cities drag down our national economy, it means people living there miss out on the economic recovery and benefits of living nearby.

"Big cities do need to see more meaningful devolution to create prosperity and drive the national economy, but our smaller towns and cities must be an integral part of the 'northern powerhouse' too.”