Centre for Cities

City Talks: Burnham's urban agenda

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Director of Policy and Research, and Jess Tulasiewicz,
Head of Public Affairs and Policy, to discuss the urban implications of Andy Burnham's latest speech where he laid out his vision for the country should he become the new Prime Minister.

City Talks: Different leaders, same fiscal devolution agenda

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Director of Policy and Research, and Oscar Selby, Analyst, to continue the conversation on the merits, importance and the detail of fiscal devolution. As we approach a change in leadership they discuss why the drive towards fiscal devolution must continue and what that might look like. 

City Talks: The inclusive growth debate

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Senior Analyst, and Neela Parker-Talwar, Researcher, to discuss the current debate on growth and inclusion in big cities. Drawing on our recent publication Uneven Cities, which looked at how urban deprivation has changed over the last 15 years, the newly published Milburn Review, and examples such as Liverpool and Manchester, they discuss whether it is possible to achieve inclusive growth.

City Talks: Cities in the media

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Joshi Herrmann, founder and editor of Manchester Mill (Mill Media), Dave Hill, founder and editor of OnLondon, and Jane Haynes, politics and people editor at Birmingham Live, to discuss cities in the media. They explore how narratives about cities are formed, why they matter and whether they shape investment and policy.

City Talks: Devolution's next steps

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Director of Policy and Research, to discuss devolution following the passing of the Devolution Act at the end of April. They cover what is included in the Act, what is missing - notably fiscal devolution - and how the Chancellor’s Mais lecture has added momentum to the case for it.

City Talks: What these elections could mean for local power

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Caitlin Rollison, External Affairs and Policy Manager, and Jess Tulasiewicz,
Head of Public Affairs and Policy. They discuss the manifestos for the upcoming Scottish and Welsh elections as well as the English local elections and discuss what more politically diverse councils could mean for mayors. 

City Minutes: The Croydon planning experiment

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Analyst Maurice Lange as well as Alison Coutinho (Mace Consult) and Guy Rochez (Town) who both worked for Croydon council between 2019 and 2022 when they were designing and implementing a new planning strategy to build more homes in the borough. Building off our recent research into the experiment, Croydon calling: Lessons on rules-based planning, they discuss what made the experiment successful as well as lessons learned.

City Minutes: Visitor levies around the world

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by External Affairs and Policy Manager Caitlin Rollison and Intern Zoe Johnson to discuss the findings of our latest briefing ‘Around the world: How do visitor levies work in other countries?'. As the Government looks to enable mayors to introduce visitor levies in England they dive into examples drawn from a range of countries and cities across the globe that have already implemented a levy.

City Talks: Death and life of British cities

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Alex Trew, Professor of Economics at the Adam Smith Business School at Glasgow University and David Nagy, Senior Researcher at CREI in Barcelona. As two of the four authors of the paper The Death and Life of Great British Cities they discuss how the specialisation and diversification of industries shapes cities.

City Talks: Perspectives on place

Centre for Cities’ Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Will Jennings, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy as well as Dean for the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton to discuss his latest paper Perspectives on Place: what the English think about their local area.

Coming shortly after the publication of Cities Outlook 2026, which examined variation in disposable incomes and levels of deprivation across the country, the discussion delves into peoples pride in their places and what this can mean for boosting growth.