Centre for Cities

City Minutes: Urban Voices 2019

In a sign that the ‘Greta Effect’ is cutting through the political agenda, the 2019 Urban Voices City Leaders' Survey found that half of city council leaders and directly elected mayors now rank the environment as a top priority.

But are they getting enough to support to address the challenge from central government?

To discuss this issue and more, Centre for Cities' Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by the think tank's Policy Officer Simon Jeffrey and Arup's Chief Economist Alexander Jan.

City Talks: General election special — The towns' election? With Will Tanner and Rachel Lawrence

The 2019 general election has been framed by many as the towns' election. Both of the main parties regard winning the votes of people living in so-called ‘left behind towns’ in the Midlands and the North as crucial to winning the election.

Why are these towns so important to the election and what are the main parties offering them to win them over? To explore these and other election issues, Andrew Carter is joined by Will Tanner, Director at Onward and Rachel Lawrence Director of Programmes and Practice at the New Economics Foundation.

City Talks: Tim Bartik on making sense of incentives

Financial incentives are often used by policymakers to attract big businesses to locate in a place and deliver jobs and growth.

But do they actually make any difference? 

Economic development and incentives expert Tim Bartik joins Andrew Carter to debunk the biggest assumptions made by policymakers in this field, revealing that 75% of the time, the same number of jobs would have been created without any incentives at all.

Tim and Andrew cover recent high-profile cases such as Amazon’s much-criticised plans for the location of its second headquarters in Virginia and New York City and Wisconsin’s $4 billion state and local tax incentives to Foxxconn in the promise of 13,000 new jobs that never materialised. 

Tim reveals the opportunity costs, spillovers and leakages that offering a high cash-per-job price tag create, and instead sets out a better way to achieve inclusive local economic growth and good jobs for all.

Background reading:

• Making Sense of Incentives: Taming Business Incentives to Promote Prosperity

City Minutes: Improving urban bus transport

Bus deregulation promised to give passengers more choice and lower fares but thirty years on it has failed. At a time when more people should be switching from cars to public transport to tackle congestion and air pollution, bus numbers are decreasing in almost every city in the UK outside London. 

Simon Jeffrey, policy officer at the Centre for Cities joins Chief Executive Andrew Carter to set out how metro mayors should begin the process of bringing local bus networks under their control via franchising in order to support economic growth, reduce congestion and improve air quality in cities. 

Background reading: 

• Delivering change — improving urban bus transport

City Talks: Evidence-based policymaking in disadvantaged places

Disadvantaged places combine low levels of economic activity with high proportions of vulnerable people that have complex needs to support. The last decade of cuts to local authority budgets has made it harder for councils to effectively support these places with less funding.

It is against this backdrop that the What Works Centres embarked on a project to focus on how the better use of evidence-based policy might help. 

To discuss the issue and findings from the report, Andrew Carter is joined by Meg Kaufman — Project Manager at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, Henry Overman — Director of the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, Mike Hawking — Policy and Partnerships Manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and Eleanor Stringer — Head of Strategy and Policy at the Youth Futures Foundation.

City Minutes: Where are the missing workers?

Britain’s jobs miracle has been widely discussed. Most commentators agree that, despite Britain’s economic uncertainty, the labour market remains robust. But go below these national headlines and explore the labour market in different cities across the country and a more complicated picture emerges.

In under ten minutes, Chief Executive Andrew Carter speaks to Analyst Elena Magrini about latest research by the Centre for Cities and the OECD into economic inactivity.

Background reading: 

• Where are the missing workers?
• How have cities changed in the last century, and what factors have affected their growth and decline?
• Lessons on how to help left behind places.

City Minutes: What's driving self-employment in cities?

Since the financial crisis, Britain’s urban areas have seen a self-employment boom. But too many people working for themselves lack access to training — raising concerns about their long-term security and many cities’ future economic strength.

In just ten minutes, Analyst Elena Magrini explains how changes in the labour market and the gig economy are playing out differently across the country and finds that there are a few industries driving self-employment in cities.

Background reading: Self-employment in cities 

City Talks: Party conference special - where do politicians stand in the devolution debate?

Britain's Brexit challenges have pushed important domestic policy debates off the political agenda. Devolution to England's cities stalled as politicians became increasingly detracted by withdrawing Britain from the EU.

At this year's Labour and Conservative party conferences Andrew Carter caught up with senior politicians and figures from the business community to discuss how they want to kick start the devolution agenda in the months ahead.

He spoke to:

• Jim McMahon MP, Shadow Devolution Minister, about empowering councils, dealing with austerity and Labour's devolution policy.
• Cllr Abi Brown, Conservative Leader of Stoke on Trent Council, about the city's economic progress, working with the Government and what she wants to see from Boris Johnson on devolution.
• Chris Fletcher, Director at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, about the impact of Brexit on Manchester, what having a metro mayor has meant for the city region and what the business community wants from candidates in the next mayoral election.  

This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

City Talks: Jonathan Rodden on the deep roots of the urban-rural political divide

In 2016 Donald Trump became US President despite winning almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.

In this episode of City Talks we talk to award-winning academic Jonathan Rodden, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and author of the book Why Cities Lose.

He explores the origins of America’s urban-rural political divide and explains how economic geography shapes elections – both in the USA and beyond.

This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

 

City Talks: Dr Julie Grail, Chris Brown and Rebecca McDonald on the future of the British high street

Many British high streets face a bleak future as policymakers are failing to identify a clear economic focus to city centre regeneration strategies. But contrary to popular belief, our research has shown that not all city centres are failing.

While cities such as Newport and Wigan struggle, others thrive.  

To discuss why this is, Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Julie Grail – Founder of The BIDs Business and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management; Chris Brown – Founder and Executive Chair of Igloo, and Rebecca McDonald – Analyst at the Centre for Cities. 

The panel discusses why retail became such a dominant feature of the high street and compares the role of online retail today with the out-of-town shopping centres of the past.

They look at examples from high streets across the UK, and the latest research by the Centre for Cities into the health of high streets, to develop a sustainable future for the British high street.