Centre for Cities

Roundtable with Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission

In the week of his talk at the London Real Estate Conference, Centre for Cities was delighted to host an intimate roundtable with Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, Carl Weisbrod.

Listen to Weisbrod talk about his work with Mayors De Blasio, Bloomberg and Dinkins as well as his time working in private sector development. His successes include transforming Times Square in to the commercial hub we see today, as well as regenerating Hudson Park and leading the post-9/11 recovery. He has also had a frontline role in addressing the problems caused by New York City’s unaffordable housing market.

See all future Centre for City events on our website: http://www.centreforcities.org/

 

City Talks: Mike Emmerich on Britian's Cities, Britain's Future

In this month's podcast, Andrew chats to Mike Emmerich author of 'Britain's Cities, Britain's Future' ex-Treasury civil servant and founding Director of Metro Dynamics.

In the book, Emmerich looks back at the 200-year history of British cities - once the engines of the industrial revolution and an example to other nations - to help better understand how urban Britain of the present, and future, can prosper in a globalised, post-Brexit climate.

Andrew and Mike discuss, the way cities like Manchester's cottonopolis grew and developed, and the formation of their public sectors and institutions. They consider how cultures of entrepreneurship, or an ideology of individualism throughout recent history, could have had an impact on the way British cities have both grown and suffered decline. Finally, they discuss the opportunities and challenges for those cities that have just elected metro mayors.

Before speaking with Mike, Andrew first catches up with Centre for Cities colleagues Paul Swinney and Simon Jeffrey to discuss last week's surprising metro mayor election results and how these powerful new city leaders are likely to take their mandates forward.

City Talks: The Voice of the City - Lessons for the English Metro Mayors

Ahead of the inaugural metro mayor elections taking place in six English city regions, Andrew Carter talks to key staffers in both the Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson mayoral administrations in London – Sir Edward Lister and Neale Coleman. He finds out how the mayors worked, how the Olympics happened, and how having this form of leadership has helped the capital to go from strength to strength.

They also offer key pieces of advice for the English metro mayors to make their first term – and the model itself - a success. How can they make the most of the power they do have to actually change their cities, how can they work with central and local government, and is there really as much politics involved as everyone thinks?

Andrew also talks to Naomi Clayton and Brian Semple about the impact on UK cities of the recently introduced apprenticeship levy and the recently increased national living wage. They also discuss the landscape ahead of next month’s metro mayor race.

 

Event catch up: Greater Manchester metro mayor hustings

Listen again to the Greater Manchester metro mayor hustings held in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce on 5 April 2017.

From May, Greater Manchester will have a new mayor with powers over transport, planning and skills. The elected metro mayor will have an important opportunity to set out and implement a strategic vision for the economy of the metro area, supporting people, firms and institutions to build a more prosperous Great Manchester in the decades to come.

As the campaign for the election gains momentum and voters become more aware of the new position and its powers, Centre for Cities and the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce hosted a hustings for candidates to set out their plans to drive growth in the city-region.

Candidates:

Andy Burnham MP, Labour Party
Cllr Sean Anstee, Conservative Party
Cllr Iain Roberts, Liberal Democrats
Will Patterson, Green

This event was chaired by Alexandra Jones, Chief Executive, Centre for Cities.

 

Event catch up: Liverpool City Region metro mayor hustings

Full audio from our Liverpool City Region metro mayor hustings held in Liverpool on 30th March 2017.

From May, Liverpool City Region will have a new mayor with powers over transport, planning and skills. The new mayor will be given the opportunity to set out and implement a strategic vision for the economy of the metro area, supporting people, firms and institutions to build a more prosperous Merseyside in the decades to come.

As the campaign for the election gains momentum, Centre for Cities and the Liverpool and Sefton Chamber of Commerce organised a hustings for candidates to set out their plans to drive growth in the city-region.

Speakers:

Tony Caldeira, Conservative Party
Carl Cashman, Liberal Democrats
Steve Rotheram MP, Labour
Tabitha Morton, Women’s Equality Party
Tom Crone, Green Party

Event catch up: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough metro mayor hustings

Full audio from our Cambridgeshire and Peterborough metro mayor hustings held in Cambridge on 28th March 2017.

From May, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will have a new mayor with powers over transport, planning and skills. The elected metro mayor will have an important opportunity to set out and implement a strategic vision for the economy of the metro area, supporting people, firms and institutions to build a more prosperous region in the decades to come.

As the campaign for the election gains momentum, Centre for Cities and Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce, organised a hustings for candidates to set out their plans to drive growth in the city-region.

Speakers:

Cllr Kevin Price, Labour
Rod Cantrill, Lib Dem
Cllr James Palmer, Conservative
Peter Dawe, Independent

Event catch up: West of England metro mayor hustings

Full audio from our West of England metro mayor hustings held in Bristol on 22nd March 2017.

From May, the West of England will have a new mayor with powers over transport, planning and skills. The elected metro mayor will have an important opportunity to set out and implement a strategic vision for the economy of the metro area, supporting people, firms and institutions to build a more prosperous region in the decades to come.

As the campaign for the election gains momentum, Centre for Cities and Business West organised a hustings for candidates to set out their plans to drive growth in the city-region. This event was kindly hosted by KPMG.

Candidates:

Tim Bowles, Conservative
Lesley Mansell, Labour
Stephen Williams Liberal Democrats
Darren Hall, Green Party
John Savage, Independent

City Talks: How can we achieve inclusive growth?

In this month’s episode, Andrew is first joined by Alexandra Jones (Chief Executive of the Centre) and Naomi Clayton (Policy and Research Manager at the Centre) to discuss what the spring Budget means for cities. Looking at the Government’s business rates relief measures, the introduction of T-levels and the rise of self-employment, the team give their insights on what this means for cities.

The big issue scrutinised in this month’s podcast is how to make growth inclusive? To tackle this tricky question, Andrew Carter is joined by panellists Katie Schmuecker, Head of Policy at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Dr Neil Lee, Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE.

They consider what inclusive growth actually means, how it can be achieved and whether it is even desirable. Asking why the majority of people experiencing poverty live in a working household (a staggering figure of 3.8 million people in the UK) Andrew and his guests turn to the UK’s long-standing poor productivity performance compared to some of our competitor nations. With automation on the rise, especially in low skilled sectors such as retail, the panel goes on to consider what the future of work holds and question whether universal basic income is a potential solution.

City Talks: What does a modern industrial strategy actually look like?

In this month’s episode, Andrew discusses the Government’s new industrial strategy and what it could mean for UK cities, with former Business Secretary Rt Hon Vince Cable, Nesta’s Director of Innovation Policy and Futures Louise Marston, and Gavin Kelly from the Resolution Trust.

Vince shares some fascinating stories from about his time in Government, including the battle he faced in making the case for an industrial strategy to Cabinet colleagues, and his regret at not having done more to address strengths and weaknesses in different places. The panel also discuss the legacy of failed industrial strategies from the 1970s in deterring successive Governments from attempting similar initiatives, before looking at how Brexit might affect industrial strategy in the context of competition, exports and international trade.

Before that, Andrew is joined by the Centre’s Chief Executive Alexandra Jones and Principal Economist Paul Swinney to discuss the biggest political developments of the past month, including the Government’s Brexit plans and its new housing white paper.

City Talks: World Cities and Nation States

In this month’s episode, Andrew is joined by Alexandra Jones and Paul Swinney to discuss what's in store for 2017.

In the main part of this episode, Andrew talks to Greg Clark and Tim Moonen from strategy firm The Business of Cities about two books they have written: World Cities and Nation States and Global Cities. The first book explores the changing relationship between nation states and the increasingly dominant cities they are home to, and the second provides a historical perspective on this development. Greg and Tim outline the different national contexts world cities find themselves in – centralised states, federal states and states that grant cities special status – and then go on to discuss how these affect approaches to cities policy.

The conversation touches on how the degree of urbanisation might impact thinking on cities in different countries, which country gets it most right when it comes to managing their cities, and whether London's dominance makes the UK an outlier internationally. The discussion ends with a look to what the future of urbanisation might look like, both around the world and in the UK.