Centre for Cities

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.

City Minutes: Restarting housebuilding

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.

City Minutes: Spending time

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. 

City Talks: Lessons from the US industrial strategy with Mark Muro

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.

City Talks: In conversation with the Rt Hon Greg Clark

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.

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.