Centre for Cities: Recent Episodes
Centre for Cities
City Talks from Centre for Cities explores the key issues facing cities and towns in the UK and beyond. Host Andrew Carter interviews leading thinkers in the urban policy field, as well as experts from Centre for Cities about their research and ideas on improving the economies of cities and large towns.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by the Rt Hon Greg Clark, newly appointed member of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and previously Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Greg shares his reflections on the English Devolution White Paper published this week and how he sees Industrial Strategy and English Devolution fitting together.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director and Maurice Lange, Analyst to discuss the findings of our new report series ‘Restarting housebuilding’ that looks at Private and Public housebuilding as well as Land Value Capture. They discuss the current policy landscape, including the Government's pledge to build 1.5million new homes, and the implications of these reports for any future housebuilding reforms.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst, and Oscar Selby, Researcher, to discuss Centre for Cities’ new report, ‘Spending time: the role of the visitor economy in UK cities’. The report explores what visitors to different places spend their money on and how this shapes local economies.
Andrew, Rob and Oscar discuss the key findings from the report, including which cities can be classed as a destinations and the differences between day and overnight visitors.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Mark Muro, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, to discuss place based industrial strategy.
They explore what the UK can learn from the US, the CHIPS Act, as well as the implications of Donald Trump's re-election.
This episode of City Talks is taken from a recent Centre for Cities keynote event with The Rt Hon Greg Clark, in partnership with Warwick Business School.
MP for Tunbridge Wells from 2005 - 2024, Greg Clark served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury as well as many other Ministerial positions.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter joined Greg to discuss his time in government, industrial strategy and devolution.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Giles Wilkes, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, specialist partner at Flint Global and former advisor to Vince Cable and Theresa May to discuss industrial strategy and the recent Green Paper.
They explore what we might expect from this Government's strategy, some of the similarities with the 2017 version, as well as what merits, if any, come from having an industrial strategy in this country.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Anthony Breach, Associate Director at Centre for Cities, to discuss our latest briefing on the upcoming English Devolution White Paper. They discuss their concerns on where the devolution debate currently is and some of the unresolved questions and issues still circulating around the purpose of devolution, what is trying to be achieved and how it should be progressed.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Sarah Hall, 1931 Professor of Geography and Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge. They discuss her research on the economic geography of financial services and the uneven economic development that results from global finance dynamics.
In addition, Sarah and Andrew consider these global finance networks and how cities like London maintain their influence in global markets, particularly in the wake of Brexit.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Ed Glaeser, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, to discuss the findings of Centre for Cities' recent report on hybrid working in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Toronto and Singapore.Ed Glaeser has written several books on the role of cities in creating prosperity over the last two decades – including The Triumph of the City in 2008. In this podcast, Ed and Andrew consider the future of cities as places of work, consumption, and economic activity.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Arpit Gupta, Associate Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business, to discuss his research into the dynamics of urban real estate markets, and how they have evolved in response to changes in remote working and the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic Arpit began researching the large migration flows of people out of urban areas, trying to understand how remote work was impacting housing decisions and how that was feeding into urban centres. In this podcast, Arpit and Andrew explore how cities' commercial and real estate sectors have evolved in response to remote work and the pandemic and what this means for the future of cities.
Andrew discusses how urban economics is advancing – from new topics and new sources of data to the theoretical developments of the moment – with three people immersed in the latest research.
Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, Helen Simpson, Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, and Max Nathan, Professor of Economic Geography at University College London. They discuss the state of research about urban economies in 2024.
We are constantly finding out more about where people live and work, how people move around, where businesses choose to locate, and where people spend their money – all of which adds more depth to our picture of cities. The three researchers describe how new topics are emerging, the enduring relevance of some core urban questions, and how new sources of data – and innovative tools for processing it – are moving research forward, at a time of increasing demand for evidence to shape policy.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Caitlin Rollison, External Affairs Manager, and Audrey-Frédérique Lavoie, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, to discuss Centre for Cities' new report, Accelerating net zero delivery: What can UK cities learn from around the world?
The report explores the need to change how we build, how we move, and how we power our cities in order to meet the government's target of net zero by 2050.
Andrew, Caitlin and Audrey discuss the role cities play in helping the UK meet its net zero target and what they should focus on to bring greenhouse gas emissions down.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst, to discuss Centre for Cities' new report, Return to the office: How London compares to other global cities, and why this matters.
New data published by Centre for Cities reveals that central London's return to the office has continued in 2024 but it falls behind in comparison to its international competitors: Paris, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Toronto.
Andrew and Rob discuss the reports findings on behaviours and attitudes towards hybrid working, and what the future holds for the office.
Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Brian Groom, author and journalist, whose latest book is Made in Manchester: A People’s History of the City That Shaped the Modern World. The Victorians had a phrase, ‘What Manchester thinks today, the world does tomorrow’. Brian discusses the city’s external global image and the web of contradictory political, economic and cultural associations it has had throughout its history.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Listen back to Centre for Cities’ previous conversation with Brian Groom on City Talks for a discussion of his previous work, Northerners: A History from the Ice Age to the Present Day.
Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director, to discuss Centre for Cities’ new report, Climbing the Summit: Big cities in the UK and the G7.
The report looks at G7 economies at a subnational level to show the role cities play in G7 economies. While it shows the driving role cities play in leading economies like the US, it detects a yawning productivity gap in the UK economy, driven by the underperformance of large cities outside the capital. Why are large places like Manchester and Birmingham, that should have an inherent productivity advantage given their size, falling behind? Paul and Ant talk discuss what the next Government should do to try and address the shortfall.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by James L. Tatum III, Director of Detroit Bureau at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, for a discussion about Detroit, a place which suffered the biggest municipal insolvency in history when it filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013. They discuss the city’s route back to financial stability and the recovery of its reputation in municipal bond markets. James Tatum is the author of a recent report, An Assessment of Detroit’s Economic Condition and a Critique of its Economic Development Efforts, to be followed by a second paper on the Detroit’s bankruptcy later this month.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Tim Leunig, who has had a notable career being a policy adviser to several senior Cabinet figures including two Chancellors as well as being an award winning economic history academic at the London School of Economics. He talks here about his role in the Government’s Covid-19 furlough scheme, how think tanks can build trust and influence in Whitehall, and what economic historians can teach policymakers.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it. To stay updated on Tim Leunig’s work, subscribe to his Substack.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Tom Dobson, Managing Director of Quod, Heather Sargent, Barrister at Landmark Chambers, and Ant Breach, Associate Director at Centre for Cities, to discuss the Labour party’s proposals to release land for housing development on what it calls the ‘grey belt’ – poor-quality or unsightly greenbelt land.
If elected to government, Labour will come under immediate pressure to implement planning reforms and boost housebuilding. Labour has pledged that it would build 1.5 million homes and sees the ‘grey belt’ as an important route to doing so. Are its proposals enough to fill the housebuilding shortfall and relieve the pressure on cities? How would greybelt development work in practice? And what more needs to be introduced?
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Professor Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and author of Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy. Neil talks about the patterns that emerge when comparing the characteristics of innovative economies around the world, why policy makers are starting to think and talk differently about Silicon Valley and lessons the UK can learn from Switzerland about using labour policy and devolution to improve economic productivity.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Adam Hawksbee, Deputy-Director of Onward and Chair of the Towns Unit at Number 10 Downing Street and the Department for Levelling Up – also known as the Government’s Towns Czar – and by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities. The Government has a £1.5bn long-term plan for towns. So, how should we be thinking about towns and should this shape the work of Centre for Cities?
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by three people with insights into several upcoming 2024 Metro mayoral elections to find out more about the candidates and discuss some of the local issues that voters will be thinking about when they go to the polls on 2 May.
He speaks to Jane Haynes, Politics and People Editor at Birmingham Mail and Post, and Birmingham Live, about the race for Metro mayor of the West Midlands. Then Oliver Pridmore, Agenda Editor at Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live, joins Andrew to discuss the first-ever Metro mayor elections in the East Midlands. Finally, he speaks to Rob Parsons, Northern Agenda Editor at Reach, who is covering the Tees Valley Metro mayoral elections and the race to be the first Metro mayor of the North East.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney and Associate Director Anthony Breach, here to explain why 2024 represents a major milestone in devolution in England. They look ahead to May’s mayoral elections, when eleven areas and over a third of the UK population will be covered by Metro mayors, and discuss how mayors’ influence over national policy debates is likely to grow in future.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst at Centre for Cities and author of a new report, Donation nation: The geography of charitable giving in the UK. Rob looked at giving patterns and asked the question, does local giving behaviour match this variation in need and does it go to the causes that most reflect local need? He outlines his findings and tells Andrew about the implications of the findings for local authorities, and where national policy and the ‘levelling up’ agenda can help.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
This is a special episode of City Minutes looking at the findings of Cities Outlook 2024 – Centre for Cities’ annual snapshot of economic activity in the UK’s urban areas. In part 2, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss the importance of urban economies in the UK and why we’re all affected by urban areas’ economic performance over time.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
This special episode of City Minutes examines the findings of Cities Outlook 2024 – Centre for Cities’ flagship economic health check of the UK’s urban areas. In part 1, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss Chapters One and Two of the report, where Centre for Cities shows what has happened to people’s incomes up and down the country since 2010, a record period of historically weak productivity growth.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Lucy Montague, Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture and co-author (with David Rudlin and Vicky Payne) of High Street: How Our Town Centres Can Bounce Back from the Retail Crisis (RIBA Publishing, 2023), which surveys the current state of the UK’s bricks-and-mortar retail sector in a hundred case studies – from traditional high streets to out-of-town retail developments, in places both big and small.
They discuss what happened in the sector during the 00s and 10s, the origins of the current crisis, and the impact of Covid. Despite its many challenges, Lucy finds reasons for optimism on the high street, as long as the UK is open to change – whether it’s stronger planning policy to encourage a greater mix of uses or action on business rates reform.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Cllr Huw Thomas, Labour Leader of Cardiff City Council since 2017. Cllr Thomas talks about Cardiff’s economic role in the city-region, describes the balance between competition and collaboration that it takes to make city-region devolution succeed, and explains why leading a city council is “a job like no other”.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Cllr Mike Ross, Liberal Democrat Leader of Hull City Council since May 2022. They discuss Cllr Ross’ lessons from over twenty years of public life, how the city used the experience of being City of Culture to change perceptions and put Hull on the map, and the question of devolution in East Yorkshire and the Humber.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Alex Niven, Lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University and author of several books including The North will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands (Bloomsbury, 2023). They discuss attempts to revive the economic fortunes and empower the people of the North of England after deindustrialisation, questions of Northern identity and Alex’s immersion in the poetry and culture of the Northeast.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Cllr Jane Mudd, Labour Leader of Newport City Council since 2019. They discuss her stance on working with business to improve the city-region, the changes the city is making to improve transport sustainability, and what Newport’s status as the ‘Gateway to Wales’ means for her as leader.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by John Stevenson, who is the MP for Carlisle, Chair of the Northern Research Group of MPs and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Key Cities. The two discuss the role Carlisle plays in its regional economy, why the Northern Research Group of MPs is pressing for more devolution of powers from Westminster to the North of England, and what John has learned about leadership during his time in the House of Commons.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Caitlin Rollison, External Affairs Manager at Centre for Cities, to discuss the new report Gear shift: International lessons for increasing public transport ridership in UK cities. They discuss whether Covid really was a meaningful turning point in how we travel around UK cities, how public transport usage in UK cities compares with European counterparts, and the policy initiatives around the world that have made a big difference to public transport ridership.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Mayor Marvin Rees, who has been Mayor of Bristol since 2016 and has given city leaders and city networks a voice on a national and international level as Chair of Core Cities UK and Co-Chair of the UK Future Cities Commission. They discuss Mayors’ political roles in UK cities, the need for more housing, and the role of cities to tackle the climate crisis, which Marvin made the subject of his TED talk a year ago.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
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Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Mayor Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, for a discussion about what the role of a Metro Mayor means for people in the North of England, how local government is funded, and plans to bring transport in Liverpool back into public control.
This episode is the first episode of Centre for Cities’ City Leaders series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
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Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Senior Analyst, to discuss which powers should be devolved to UK cities. Their discussion focuses on the proposals put forward in a new report, In place of centralisation: Devolution for London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, commissioned for The Economy 2030 Enquiry funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Researcher Matthew Coombes, author of Miles better: Improving public transport in the Glasgow City Region, to discuss the potential for bus franchising to help Glasgow reach its economic potential.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, Ant Breach, Senior Analyst, and Jess Tulasiewicz, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, to review key moments at two action-packed party conferences in Manchester and Liverpool. They discuss a Conservative party conference dominated by the decision to cancel HS2’s northern leg, Labour’s bold ambitions on housebuilding, and more.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities to discuss Paul’s new briefing, Do city centres really benefit their wider areas?. They discuss how improving and expanding Manchester and Birmingham city centres can bring benefits to places like Oldham and West Bromwich, and the role this plays in levelling up.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney is joined by James Evans, Research Fellow at Centre for Cities and author of the new report, Innovation hotspots: Clustering the New Economy, which identifies 344 hotspots of ‘new economy’ activity where promising businesses are clustering together. Paul and James discuss the findings and why new economy hotspots are an urban phenomenon.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities to discuss Paul’s new briefing, Trickle Out: How cities help their surrounding towns. They discuss the relationship that big cities have with their surrounding areas, how this impacts on quality of life in nearby places, and how we can help towns take advantage of having a big city nearby.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Christian Wolmar, the writer and broadcaster and specialist in British transport. He is the author of several books, including Fire & Steam: How the Railways Transformed Britain, Are Trams Socialist? Why Britain Has No Transport Policy, and most recently British Rail: A New History, published by Michael Joseph in 2022.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Researcher Stuart Bridgett, author of Pot Luck: What government needs to do to streamline local government funding, to discuss the Government’s long-anticipated plan to simplify the funding landscape for local authorities, first promised in the 2022 Levelling Up White Paper.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined in this episode by Ian Goldin, Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford, and Tom Lee-Devlin, Global Business Correspondent at The Economist. They are the co-authors of The Age of the City: Why our Future will be Won or Lost Together.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Henry Overman, Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics, Research Director at the Centre for Economic Performance and Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, which marks its tenth anniversary this year. They discuss how to measure the scale of the underperformance of cities in the UK and search for evidence that could point us towards the right solutions.
The discussion follows on from Henry’s recent post for the LSE’s Politics and Policy blog: Why the government’s levelling-up plans need a reality check.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Daniel Knowles, Chicago-based journalist at The Economist, about his new book, Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It.
Carmageddon is published in the UK as a Kindle e-book on Friday 16 June 2023 and can be pre-ordered online: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C6RHS9YC.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Senior Analyst Anthony Breach and Researcher Matthew Coombes to discuss Centre for Cities’ recent report, All Cylinders: the Role of the Midlands Engine in the UK Economy, which shows that the Midlands economy is largely urban and explores the kinds of economic activity happening in the region.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dan Graham, Professor of Statistical Modelling at Imperial College London, and Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities, who are both co-authors of a new Centre for Cities report, Office Politics: London and the rise of home working.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Joining Chief Executive Andrew Carter is James Plunkett, Group Chief Practices Officer at Nesta and author of End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken and How We Fix It and the Future State blog on Substack. They discuss James’ recent article, Unequality: When inequality changes, our strategies must too, which is the third in a three-part series of essays for a project with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Social justice in a digital age.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Anna Stansbury, Assistant Professor in Work and Organization Studies at MIT Sloan and co-author (with Ed Balls and Dan Turner) of a working paper titled Tackling the UK’s regional economic inequality: Binding constraints and avenues for policy intervention.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew is joined by Analyst Guilherme Rodrigues and Researcher Stuart Bridgett to discuss the findings of Centre for Cities' new report, entitled Capital Losses: The role of London in the UK's productivity puzzle.
Andrew is joined by Senior Analyst Anthony Breach and Research Assistant Samuel Watling to discuss Centre for Cities' new report, The Housebuilding Crisis, which examines how the UK's outdated planning laws have created a backlog of 4.3 million homes since 1955.
Andrew is joined by Dr Felix Rösel, from the University of Braunschweig, and former Centre for Cities Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel to discuss the findings of their paper entitled: German Reunification: Lessons from the German approach to closing regional economic divides.
Andrew is joined by economist and former civil servant David Higham. This episode focuses on David’s time working under Michael Heseltine in the 1990s and how the approach to regional economic growth has developed in recent decades.
This special City Minutes trilogy examines the findings of Cities Outlook 2023 – Centre for Cities’ flagship economic health check of the UK’s urban areas. For Part One of this series, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss Chapter One of the report, reviewing the progress of UK policy in 2022 and examining its future in the coming year.
This is Part 2 of a three-part series exploring the findings of Cities Outlook 2023 – Centre for Cities’ flagship economic health check of the UK’s urban areas. In this episode, Andrew Carter is joined by Senior Analyst Valentine Quinio and Researcher Olivia Vera to discuss Chapter Two of the report, which highlights the scale and geography of economic inactivity.
This is the final episode of the three-part podcast series exploring the findings of Cities Outlook 2023 – Centre for Cities’ flagship economic health check of the UK’s urban areas. In this episode, Andrew Carter is joined by Researcher Olivia Vera to discuss Chapter Three of the report, which uses a range of indicators to analyse the economic performance of the UK’s 63 and large towns. This discussion focuses specifically on five indicators, including productivity, new economy firms, knowledge jobs, wages, and CO2 emissions to see how these play out across the country.
Andrew is joined by urban economic development expert John Houghton to discuss his Solving the riddle of the sands blog series, which examines how we can revive England's struggling seaside towns.
Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities' Director of Policy and Research, Paul Swinney, to discuss the findings of our new report: At the Frontier: The geography of the UK's new economy. The report explores how new economy advanced tech industries are created in urban areas and what the Government should do to seize these opportunities.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew is joined by Professor Tony Travers from the London School of Economics to reflect on the current place of local government in the UK. This episode examines what impacts last week's Autumn Statement could have on local authorities and what the future holds for them throughout this Parliament and beyond.
Andrew is joined by Mark Muro, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, to discuss the US Government’s Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (the CHIPS Act), recently signed into law by President Joe Biden. This episode examines how the new $280bn programme can drive growth and innovation across US cities and what lessons could be learned for the UK’s levelling up agenda.
Andrew is joined by Dr Max Nathan, from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL, and Eliza Easton, Deputy Director of Policy and Communications at Nesta’s Policy and Evidence Centre. Together they analyse the role of creative industries in driving the economic performance of urban areas, highlighting observations from Creative Clusters and Creative Multipliers: Evidence from UK Cities - a paper co-authored by Dr Nathan and published by Economic Geography.
Back in February, as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, the Government announced that 20 transformative regeneration projects would be rolled out across the UK.
Centre for Cities’ latest report published in partnership with Aviva, Making places: The role of regeneration in levelling up, highlights how these zones sit at the heart of the Government's ambitions to deliver swift, economic growth by attracting private sector investment.
For this episode of City Minutes, Researcher Stuart Bridgett and Senior Analyst Anthony Breach join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to debate some of the key findings of the report.
Together, they discuss how the Government can make regeneration schemes viable and explore the learnings, lessons, and exceptions from the King's Cross redevelopment.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
For the latest episode of City Talks, Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester, and former managing director at Transport for London, Vernon Everitt.
Together, they discuss the issues in funding public transport networks in the UK and what needs to be done to boost ridership and provide the services cities need.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
The cost of living crisis is dominating headlines, with the debate so far largely focusing on the burden felt by households, individuals and socio-economic groups.
Centre for Cities’ latest report, Out of pocket: the places at the sharp end of the UK’s cost of living crisis examines the crisis using a place-based approach for the very first time, to determine how the current squeeze on incomes is likely to be felt across the UK’s cities and largest towns.
For this episode of City Minutes, Senior Analyst Valentine Quinio and Analyst Guilherme Rodrigues join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to unpack the key findings of the report.
Together, they discuss, the drivers behind the geography of the cost of living crisis, whether the support provided by the Government is enough, and what short term and long term interventions can be put in place to ensure people and places are supported now and in the years to come.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew Carter speaks to Chief Executive of the Royal Statistical Society and former government advisor Stian Westlake about his new book, Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy, which he co-authored alongside Jonathan Haskel.
This episode explores how there has been an incomplete transition from an economy based on physical capital to one based on intangible capital - such as ideas, brands, and knowledge. Westlake argues that this has left our economic institutions geared to an outmoded way of doing business, and that an institutional refresh is needed to drive growth and address inequalities.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Before Covid, the office-based workforce was key to the health of the high street. Now, despite the reopening of the economy, office workers in some of our strongest cities are yet to return in the numbers we saw pre-pandemic, raising questions over what’s next for our high streets.
For this episode of City Minutes, Senior Analyst Valentine Quinio joins Chief Executive Andrew Carter to set out the main findings of our latest briefing Homeworking and the high street.
They explore the state of play pre-pandemic, how successive lockdowns and shifts to homeworking have impacted high streets, and what - in the context of the ‘new normal’ of hybrid working - is now needed for city centres to adapt and thrive.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew Carter talks to former Financial Times journalist and Scotland on Sunday editor Brian Groom about his new book Northerners: A History. From the Ice Ages to the 21st Century.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Andrew Carter speaks to RSA Chief Executive and former permanent secretary for levelling up Andy Haldane about the work that went into the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper and the challenges of tackling spatial inequality in the UK.
Each episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series.
Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
On 5th May, Labour's Oliver Coppard was elected as the new Mayor of South Yorkshire.
Following on from our South Yorkshire Election Special series, Andrew Carter joined The Yorkshire Post’s Political Editor, Chris Burn, to discuss how having a mayor has benefitted the region so far and the future challenges the new mayor faces.
Centre for Cities Chief Executive Andrew Carter joins the National Audit Office’s Director of Local Service Delivery and Value for Money, Ashley McDougall, and Danielle Mason, from the What Works Centre for Economic Growth, to discuss the findings of the NAO’s Supporting Local Economic Growth report.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Bex Whyman is the Green Party candidate to be the next Mayor of South Yorkshire. In this episode of City Minutes she joined Andrew Carter to discuss her vision for the region and what she would do as mayor.
Bex spoke about her motivations for becoming mayor, her green skills-focused economic vision, and and her loud, proud, and kind approach to working with Government.
This episode is part of a special series of City Minutes focusing on the South Yorkshire Mayoral Election. Follow along this week to hear from more candidates.
Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Joe Otten is the Liberal Democrat candidate to be the next Mayor of South Yorkshire. In this episode of City Minutes he joined Andrew Carter to discuss his vision for the region and what he would do as mayor.
Joe spoke about his guiding motivations for becoming mayor, his vision for economic regeneration, how he would prioritise bus franchising, and why he would pay particular focus to the unique strengths and needs of each of the areas that make up the South Yorkshire region.
This episode is part of a special series of City Minutes focusing on the South Yorkshire Mayoral Election. Follow along this week to hear from more candidates.
Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Oliver Coppard is the Labour candidate to be the next Mayor of South Yorkshire. In this episode of City Minutes he joined Andrew Carter to discuss his vision for the region and what he would do as mayor.
Oliver spoke about how he views the economy, why funding for public transport is integral, how he sees the region working together, and his approach to engaging with Government to achieve the best outcomes for the region and the people who live in it.
This episode is part of a special series of City Minutes focusing on the South Yorkshire Mayoral Election. Follow along this week to hear from more candidates.
Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Simon Biltcliffe is the Yorkshire Party candidate to be the next Mayor of South Yorkshire. In this episode of City Minutes he joined Andrew Carter to discuss his vision for the region and what he would do as mayor.
Simon spoke about his business background and transition into politics, his ambitions to bring South Yorkshire into national and international focus, the importance of transport infrastructure for the region, and how he plans to improve the economic wellbeing and quality of life of South Yorkshire residents.
This episode is part of a special series of City Minutes focusing on the South Yorkshire Mayoral Election. Follow along this week to hear from more candidates.
Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
After two years of speculation, the Government has now published its Levelling Up White Paper - a blueprint designed to reconfigure the UK's economic, political and social geographies and spread prosperity across the country.
For this episode of City Minutes, Andrew Carter spoke to Centre for Cities Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to get the Centre's initial reaction to the Government's plans.
You can read all of Centre for Cities research on levelling up here.
This year’s Cities Outlook looks in-depth at the state of UK high streets to get a sense of the short-term impact of the pandemic on Britain's town and city centres and the long-term consequences and implications this has for the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Our research shows that over the past two years the pandemic has cost some places nearly a years’ worth of high street sales. However, not all places have been affected equally by the pandemic and as such the fate of the high street is not so clear cut.
For this episode of City Minutes, Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel and Analyst Valentine Quinio join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to set out the main findings of the research. They explore key high street trends and behavioural changes, and discuss what implications these have for the future of our city and town centres.
Centre for Cities’ recent research conducts the first comprehensive comparison between transport networks of large British cities and their Western European competitors. It reveals that poor urban transport costs the UK more than £21 billion per year, with less than half of people in big cities outside of London able to reach their city centre quickly using public transport.
For this episode of City Minutes, Anthony Breach and Guilherme Rodrigues – authors of Centre for Cities’ recent report – join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to discuss the differences between how European cities are planned and built in comparison to those in the UK, and the wider implications this has for the levelling up agenda.
The UK Government will soon publish its highly-anticipated Levelling Up White Paper, setting out a plan to level up opportunities and to address the country’s long-standing geographic inequalities.
Levelling up formed a key part of this Government’s 2019 election manifesto and in the two years since has become a political buzzword ahead of the White Paper’s publication this autumn.
What have fellow UK think tank experts made of the levelling up debate so far? How do they feel the agenda’s narrative has evolved over the past eighteen months? What do they expect to see in the forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper?
In this episode of City Talks, Andrew Carter speaks to Will Tanner, Director of Onward and former special advisor to Theresa May, Carys Roberts, Executive Director of IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) and Nick Bowes, Chief Executive of Centre for London and former Mayoral Director of Policy at the Greater London Authority.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
The UK Government will soon publish a plan for levelling up the country and bridging its long-standing geographic divides.
The UK is not the first country to have to grapple with this challenge; when Germany reunified in 1990, productivity in the former East was was just 60% of that in the West and people in cities such as Leipzig and Dresden were less prosperous than those in Frankfurt or Munich.
Over the last three decades the German Federal Government has worked to close this gap and, though it still exists, prosperity and economic productivity in the former East Germany has now almost caught up with the West.
What did the Federal Government do to achieve this? And what lessons can the German experience offer the UK’s own levelling up agenda? To discuss this Andrew Carter is joined by:
- Dr Matthias Brachert, Economist at the Centre for Evidence-based Policy Advice, part of IWH Halle, which provides independent economic research.
- Dr Benjamin Klement, Research Fellow at Fraunhofer Leipzig, the Centre for International Management and the Knowledge Economy. It conducts interdisciplinary socio-economic research.
- Prof Felix Roesl, Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Braunschweig and former Economist at IFO Dresden, which conducts economic research on the former East German federal states.
More than five months into his second term, the Mayor joined Chief Executive Andrew Carter at this year’s Conservative Party Conference for an in-depth discussion on what’s on his agenda for the future of Tees Valley, his expectations for the upcoming Levelling Up White Paper and his views on further devolution.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks podcast series. We invite you to rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Now more than five months into his second term, the Mayor joined Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney at this year’s Labour Party Conference for an in-depth discussion on his experiences as Mayor of Greater Manchester and his positioning on levelling up and devolution.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks podcast series recorded at Labour Party Conference 2021. We invite you to rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
In May 2021 Tracy Brabin made history as West Yorkshire’s first metro mayor, and Britain’s first female metro mayor.
In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter caught up with her to discuss her first few months in office, why she stood and her vision for West Yorkshire.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks podcast series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Our research shows that not every UK town is struggling. What can we learn from successful towns about the levelling up agenda? What are the main characteristics that differentiate strong towns from weaker ones and what policy is needed to make long-lasting change?
This City Minutes explores these questions as part of our wider ongoing work into the performance of UK towns in the context of levelling up.
In the second episode, host Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel to discuss how we can bring greater prosperity to towns that are struggling.
Explore our work on levelling up towns here.
The cities versus towns debate is often unhelpfully pitched as an ‘us versus them’ scenario. What is the nature of the economic relationship between cities and towns and how does it play out across the UK? What implications does the debate have for policy makers and people alike?
This City Minutes explores these questions as part of our wider ongoing work into the performance of UK towns in the context of levelling up.
In the first episode, host Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel to discuss the symbiotic relationship between cities and towns and how they benefit from each other.
Explore our work on levelling up towns here.
What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?
City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.
In the fourth episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss the impact of a decade of austerity on the UK's largest cities and towns and the policy interventions needed to reverse these and level up public services.
Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.
What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?
City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.
In the third episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Researcher Tom Sells to discuss the policy interventions needed to level up the public transport system in cities and large towns.
Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.
What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?
City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.
In the second episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Analyst Valentine Quinio to discuss the challenges that our high streets and city centres face, and the policy interventions needed to support them.
Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.
The UK’s lockdown and restrictions have meant that some people are likely to have accumulated savings over the past 15 months, which could now be used to refuel the economy as we enter the recovery phase. However, Centre for Cities’ latest research reveals these Covid-savings are not distributed evenly across the country, as not everyone has had the same experience of the pandemic.
Elena Magrini and Tom Sells - authors of Centre for Cities’ recent report - join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to share their reflections on how the pandemic has affected people’s spending, saving and debt in different ways and what this means for the recovery of the UK’s cities and largest towns.
What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?
Over the next few weeks City Minutes will explore these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.
In the first episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst and skills expert Elena Magrini to discuss the education-related challenges that people in different cities and towns face, and the policy interventions needed to support them.
Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.
Hosting an iconic sporting event such as the Olympic or Commonwealth Games can help to put a city on the international stage, but do they have a positive long-term economic effect?
For this episode of City Minutes, Senior Analyst Anthony Breach joins Chief Executive Andrew Carter to debate whether big sporting events can make a long-term difference to cities' economies and discuss what policymakers should consider to ensure that these events deliver real long-term economic improvements.
Covid-19 has made the job of levelling up, the agenda elevated by the current Government to address the deep geographical inequalities present within the UK, much harder.
The levelling up narrative is made up of many strands and is a concept that has been seen by some as complex, undefined and ambiguous, prompting the question what does the future hold for the agenda over the next twelve months and beyond?
For this episode of City Talks, Andrew Carter is joined by Will Jennings, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Southampton and co-founder of Centre for Towns, who speaks about the realignment of British politics; the political value of levelling up; the five contradictions it imposes; and wider conversations surrounding the agenda within the framework of his latest work.
“The Politics of Levelling Up” is co-authored by Will Jennings, Laurence McKay and Gerry Stoker and published in The Political Quarterly.
This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks podcast series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.
Last week eight metro mayors were elected to govern England's largest city regions. While the Conservatives cemented their position in parts of the former Red Wall, Labour made gains elsewhere, including in Southern England.
What do these results mean for people living in cities, and how will the Government respond to several new Labour metro mayors? To discuss these questions Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities' Senior Analyst Anthony Breach.
On 6 May, around 20 million people in England will be voting to elect a metro mayor to lead on making important decisions at the local level in their city region. While the position of Mayor of London has existed since 2000, this year, Greater Manchester voters will be electing their metro mayor for the second time round and it will be the first election of its kind taking place in West Yorkshire.
What’s the current state of play in these three places? Which candidates are making waves? What challenges will they face post-election?
For this episode of City Talks, Andrew Carter is joined by Francesca Gains, Professor of Public Policy and Academic Co-Director of Policy@Manchester at the University of Manchester, Rob Parsons, Political Editor of The Yorkshire Post and Richard Brown, Interim Director at Centre for London, to get a sense of the state of play in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and London.
As the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme progresses policy makers should be planning how to repair the economic damage done by the pandemic and build back better.
Centre for Cities’ latest research, in partnership with HSBC UK, examines how and where jobs were created following the last Financial Crisis to inform thinking about what is likely to happen post-Covid-19.
It found that the jobs crisis is bigger than realised and the economy will need to create almost ten million new private sector jobs just to reverse the damage done in the past year.
To discuss the paper in more detail, Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel and Researcher Tom Sells.