Centre for Cities

City Talks: Industrial Strategy with Giles Wilkes

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.

 

City Minutes: English Devolution

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.

City Talks: Professor Sarah Hall

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.

City Talks: Ed Glaeser and the future of global cities

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.

City Talks: Arpit Gupta

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.

City Talks: Why we are seeing a boom in urban economics research

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. 

City Minutes: Accelerating net zero

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.

City Minutes: Return to the office

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.

 

City Talks: "What Manchester thinks today, the world does tomorrow"

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.

City Minutes: Big cities in the UK and the G7

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.

How does the geography of the G7’s economies alter our understanding of how well each nation performs? The report highlights the underperformance of the UK’s largest cities relative to their G7 peers, and how this creates a yawning prosperity gap between the UK and G7 leaders the USA, France and Germany. 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.