Centre for Cities

City Leaders: Mayor Marvin Rees

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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City Leaders: Mayor Steve Rotheram

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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City Minutes: What should the next phase of devolution look like?

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.

City Minutes: Why Glasgow should implement bus franchising

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.

City Minutes: Housing, urban transport, and cities versus towns at party conferences

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.

City Minutes: Do Manchester and Birmingham city centres spread prosperity?

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.

City Minutes: Where to find the melting pots of the new economy

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.

City Minutes: Does wealth ‘trickle out’ from cities to nearby places?

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.

City Talks: British Rail with Christian Wolmar

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.

City Minutes: How should local government be funded?

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.