Centre for Cities

City Talks: Sir John Armitt on the future of UK infrastructure

From HS2 to Northern Powerhouse Rail to a proposed Scotland-Northern Ireland bridge, improving the infrastructure that links us together is a key cornerstone of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

What role does infrastructure play in creating economic growth? How should local political leaders be involved in commissioning projects in their areas? And have the huge changes brought about by Covid-19 changed the UK’s future infrastructure priorities?

To discuss these issues, and more, Andrew Carter is joined by Sir John Armitt, Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission and former Chief Executive of Network Rail. He is also the author of the independent Armitt Review of long-term infrastructure planning in the UK.

City Talks: Politicians on levelling up during the Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has made the job of levelling up the UK much harder than it was a year ago. While the Government grapples with the economic and public health effects of the pandemic, many of the policies planned to grow cities’ and towns’ economies – from the devolution white paper to the Green Book review – have been postponed.

So what does the future hold for the levelling up agenda and the people and places it was intended to help?

To get a sense of this Andrew Carter spoke to local and national politicians from the two main political parties:

• Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• Councillor Abi Brown, Conservative Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council
• Councillor Peter Lamb, Labour Leader of Crawley Borough Council
• Ben Bradley MP, Conservative MP for Mansfield

City Minutes: Re-writing the Green Book for levelling up

The Government plans to reform the Green Book of guidance on how it invests public money. This follows criticism from politicians and other commentators who have suggested that, in its current form, the Green Book inhibits the levelling up agenda by skewing infrastructure investment towards London and the South East.

Are these criticisms fair? And how should the Government use a reformed Green Book to make investment decisions to level up the country?

To discuss this Andrew Carter is joined by Anthony Breach, author of Centre for Cities’ new report Re-writing the Green Book for Levelling Up.

City Minutes: Levelling up local government in England

Reform of England’s local government system is long overdue. There are currently 349 local and combined authorities with overlapping responsibilities and competing interests. This bureaucratic and complex system makes long-term strategic decision making difficult and holds back the places that need to be levelled up.

In his latest report Centre for Cities’ Policy Officer Simon Jeffrey proposed redrawing the English political map, replacing the 348 existing authorities with 69 unitary or combined ones with greater powers and resources and whose political boundaries match the economic geography in which people live and work.

For this episode of City Minutes, he joins Andrew Carter to discuss his proposals in more detail.

City Minutes: The impact of Eat Out to Help Out on cities

The Government launched the Eat Out To Help Out scheme to support the hospitality sector and encourage people to return to restaurants and cafes. More than 64 million meals were sold as part of the scheme, but it had mixed successes in city and town centres up and down the country.

Using footfall and spend data from the Centre for Cities High Streets Recovery Tracker, Researchers Valentine Quinio and Lahari Ramuni join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to evaluate the scheme and to make recommendations for what should replace it.

City Talks: Debbie Weekes-Bernard on race, ethnicity and devolved policy making

The killing of George Floyd in the US, the Black Lives Matter protests and Covid-19 have shone a spotlight on many of the systemic injustices that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people still face.

From interactions with the police to structural inequalities in our public services and many statues' problematic legacies, cities - where people from different backgrounds come together - are frequently the places where this is experienced most acutely. 

This week, London's Deputy Mayor for Social Integration, Social Mobility, Community Engagement Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard joins Andrew Carter to discuss her role in this key year, the effect of Black Lives Matter on her work and the the role that devolved policy makers should play in making cities' fairer places for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people.

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.