Centre for Cities

Dafni Papoutsaki on the links between internal migration and social mobility

For lots of young people, leaving their hometowns to head to university or build a career is an important rite of passage. Many people still head to London in search of those streets paved with gold but, in recent years, other cities such as Manchester and Glasgow have also drawn in increasing numbers of people. 

However, as a new paper from the Social Mobility Commission - Moving Out to Move On -  shows, those who choose to move to prosperous cities such as London are usually more from privileged backgrounds and have university degrees. Meanwhile, people from less privileged backgrounds are less likely to move altogether - and those that do tend to move to less economically successful areas and, as a result, have fewer opportunities open to them, even after they move.   

To discuss this issue in more detail, Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Dafni Papoutsaki, Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies and co-author of the Social Mobility Commission's new report. 

City Minutes: Where in the UK is it hardest to find a job?

The Covid-19 pandemic has created an employment crisis.

There are now 730,000 fewer employed people in the UK than when lockdown began. However, different places have been hit harder than others. In Luton and Slough, the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits has risen by more than double than in York.

This variation means that unemployed people will have a much harder time getting a new job in some places than others. Our recent research with Indeed found that there is nine times more competition for a job in Middlesbrough than there is in Cambridge.  

To discuss the reasons behind this, and what policymakers can do to help out of work people, Andrew Carter is joined by Pawel Adrjan, Head of EMEA Research at Indeed and Economics Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, and Elena Magrini, Senior Analyst at Centre for Cities.   

City Talks: How are cities across the globe responding to Covid-19?

Cities have been epicenters of the global Covid-19 pandemic. While life for the public has changed immeasurably in just a few short months, urban authorities have also had to quickly respond to new challenges and responsibilities to keep their residents safe – often bringing them into conflict with national and state governments.

To discuss how the public and policymakers across the globe have adapted to the pressures of the pandemic, Andrew Carter is joined by resident experts from three cities:

• CityMetric’s Editor Sommer Mathis, in New York City, USA
• Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Salvador Adriana Campelo, in Salvador, Brazil
• Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel, in Berlin, Germany

Together they reflect on their own experiences in lockdown in cities across the world, and provide insight into how their city, state and national governments have handled the crisis.

City Minutes: How a flexible zoning system would end the UK housing crisis

The housing crisis remains one of the biggest challenges the UK faces. While many young people in high demand cities and towns struggle to afford decent accommodation, homeowners in parts of the Greater South East have gained vast amounts of housing wealth in recent years.

For this episode of City Minutes, Centre for Cities’ Housing Analyst Anthony Breach joins Andrew Carter to discuss his latest report Planning for the future: How flexible zoning will end the housing crisis.

Drawing concerning comparisons with the ‘shortage economies’ of the former Eastern Bloc, he argues that our discretionary, case-by-case planning system rations land, restricts the supply of new homes and decreases affordability. He calls for the UK to scrap this approach and adopt a flexible zoning system, as seen in countries such as Japan and parts of the USA.

Professor Francesca Gains on gender, representation and devolution

While the representation (or lack) of women in the House of Commons is often discussed, female involvement at senior levels of local government and devolved urban authorities is rarely discussed. Perhaps as a result, there are currently no female metro mayors and just 21% of local authority leaders are female – often meaning that women and gender issues are frozen out of the local policy making process.

This week, Andrew Carter is joined by Professor Francesca Gains, Professor of Public Policy and Academic Co-Director of Policy@Manchester at the University of Manchester to discuss how having women in decision making positions and robust equalities legislation in place affects policymaking for the better.

Francesca highlights areas where there is significant under-representation of women, ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities, and explains how this plays out when forming the policy response, particularly in times of crisis.

Resources:

• On Gender
  
  
• Mind the Gap – Getting Women’s Voices into Policy Making

City Minutes: Why the economic impact of Coronavirus will be felt differently across the UK

Nowhere is feeling the economic and social impact of Coronavirus more than UK’s cities and largest towns. In under ten minutes, Senior Analysts Elena Magrini and Kathrin Enenkel explain why the economic impact of the pandemic will be bigger in some places than others.

Kathrin reveals the geographic spread of the jobs predicted to be the most and least affected, while Elena highlights where has seen the biggest increase in unemployment since lockdown began.

City Talks: Face-to-face interaction and why cities still matter in the information age

Many expect the Coronavirus pandemic to bring about a working from home revolution. But while technology means that some work can be done anywhere, cities remain the setting for allowing the face-to-face economy to function.

What is it about face-to-face interaction that means firms are willing to pay eye-watering rents to locate in city centres? What aspects behaviour cannot be replicated online? And will the initial decision by some firms to allow more home-working last beyond the pandemic?

This week, Andrew Carter is joined by Jonathan Reades, Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography at King's College London and Martin Crooktson, strategic planning consultant and former member of the Urban Task Force, to discuss face-to-face interaction and why cities still matter in the information age.

City Minutes: Household debt and problem debt in British cities

The economy now faces its most difficult period in living memory and one in five jobs in large cities and towns could be lost or furloughed. This puts people with higher levels of household debt in particularly precarious situations.

Latest research by Kanishka Narayan, Associate at Centre for Cities, found that people in large cities and towns in Northern England and Wales have the most household debt and will be hit hardest in the economic downturn.

Kanishka joins Chief Executive Andrew Carter for a ten minute debrief to talk about the recent analysis that looked at where problem debt is concentrated geographically and the implications for policy.

City Talks: Coronavirus and UK unemployment with Tony Wilson

The pandemic and lockdown has left millions unemployed or furloughed on the Government’s Job Retention Scheme. Unemployment levels are widely expected to rise to historic highs and at a rate not seen for at least a generation.

Many have lauded the Government’s response so far, but how long will it take for the economy to recover, given the imperfections of the UK’s labour market going into this recession?

Tony Wilson, Director at the Institute for Employment Studies, joins Andrew Carter to discuss the state of the labour market, the government response to the immediate crisis, and how to move to the next phase of the recovery.

City Talks: LSE’s Neil Lee on hipsters, geeks and the future of work

As people become more used to working from home, many employers are now reconsidering their established working practices and potentially shifting towards a future where the traditional office plays a less central role.

But is this shift feasible in the long-term?

To discuss this, Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Neil Lee, Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. Neil draws on his extensive research looking at the relationship between science, creativity and innovation to examine the interplay between the creative and non-creative sectors and how they foster innovation.

They also discuss the present Coronavirus pandemic. Neil concludes that while is will change how we use cities, face-to-face working still matters as a means to foster innovation.

He acknowledges support from the AHRC Policy and Evidence Centre for the Creative Industries for this.