Centre for Cities

City Talks: Comparing regional governments across Europe

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Arjan Schakel, Research Professor at the University of Bergen and expert on regional governance and territorial politics. They discuss Arjan's work on the Regional Authority Index, which measures the authority in self rule and shared rule exercised by regional governments, in order to get a sense of how regional level authority and autonomy differ across countries.

 

City Minutes: Reforming anti-supply measures

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director, to discuss our latest report Breaking the Bottlenecks: Reforming ‘anti-supply measures’ to support urban housebuilding. They dive in to each of the five anti-supply measures we identified that should be reviewed by national Government and in the new version of London Plan as well as the moderate and bold reforms we propose for each measure to help cities play their role in meeting the 1.5m housebuilding target. 

City Minutes: What the local election results mean for the Government's plan for growth

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, to discuss the results of last week's local elections and what they mean for growth in the country. They explore the myth of "left behind" places and how government policy should respond to the political discontent signalled by the rise in votes for Reform UK. 

City Talks: Land power with Professor Michael Albertus

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Professor Michael Albertus, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. They discuss Michael’s latest book, Land power: who has it, who doesn’t, and how that determines the fate of societies, which tackles how land came to be power within human societies, how it shapes power and how its allocation determines the major social and economic challenges that society has grappled with.

City Talks: Delivering the Government’s growth mission with Dan Tomlinson

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dan Tomlinson, MP for Chipping Barnet since 2024 and the national champion for the Government’s growth mission. They discuss Dan’s background as a councillor and former policy wonk, why he decided to enter the world of politics and his ambitions to help reform the planning system and deliver on the Government’s growth mission.

Twenty years on from the UK Housing Supply Review with Dame Kate Barker

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dame Kate Barker, a British economist appointed by the Government in 2003 to conduct an independent review of UK Housing Supply which presented recommendations to the UK government for securing future housing needs. Twenty years on from the publication of the Barker report Andrew and Kate reflect on what has changed in housing and planning, what has remained largely unchanged and the lessons that can be learned for the future. 

City Talks: Creative firms, workers, and neighbourhood gentrification

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Tasos Kitsos, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and International Business and member of the Centre for Business Prosperity, Aston Business School, Aston University and Holly Lewis, co-founding partner of We Made That. They discuss the findings of Tasos’ new paper ‘Don’t Shoot the Pianist: Creative Firms, Workers, and Neighborhood Gentrification’, written alongside Max Nathan and Diana Gutiérrez-Posada.

City Talks: The role of UK R+D clusters in driving national prosperity

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by George Freeman MP, former Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology and currently a Global Growth and Trade Envoy for this government. They discuss the upcoming national Industrial Strategy, the possibility of the UK becoming a science superpower and the role of R+D in levelling up. 

City Minutes: Cities Outlook 2025

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, to discuss the findings of our flagship report 'Cities Outlook’, our annual health check of the economic performance of urban Britain. They discuss variation in wages across the country, what drives this variation, and what policy will need to do for the Government to achieve its aim of raising living standards everywhere.

City Talks: English Devolution and Industrial Strategy with Rt Hon Greg Clark

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.