Centre for Cities Centre for Cities

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Professor Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and author of Innovation for the Masses: How to Share the Benefits of the High-Tech Economy. Neil talks about the patterns that emerge when comparing the characteristics of innovative economies around the world, why policy makers are starting to think and talk differently about Silicon Valley and lessons the UK can learn from Switzerland about using labour policy and devolution to improve economic productivity.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Adam Hawksbee, Deputy-Director of Onward and Chair of the Towns Unit at Number 10 Downing Street and the Department for Levelling Up – also known as the Government’s Towns Czar – and by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities. The Government has a £1.5bn long-term plan for towns. So, how should we be thinking about towns and should this shape the work of Centre for Cities?
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by three people with insights into several upcoming 2024 Metro mayoral elections to find out more about the candidates and discuss some of the local issues that voters will be thinking about when they go to the polls on 2 May.
He speaks to Jane Haynes, Politics and People Editor at Birmingham Mail and Post, and Birmingham Live, about the race for Metro mayor of the West Midlands. Then Oliver Pridmore, Agenda Editor at Nottingham Post and Nottinghamshire Live, joins Andrew to discuss the first-ever Metro mayor elections in the East Midlands. Finally, he speaks to Rob Parsons, Northern Agenda Editor at Reach, who is covering the Tees Valley Metro mayoral elections and the race to be the first Metro mayor of the North East.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney and Associate Director Anthony Breach, here to explain why 2024 represents a major milestone in devolution in England. They look ahead to May’s mayoral elections, when eleven areas and over a third of the UK population will be covered by Metro mayors, and discuss how mayors’ influence over national policy debates is likely to grow in future.
This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst at Centre for Cities and author of a new report, Donation nation: The geography of charitable giving in the UK. Rob looked at giving patterns and asked the question, does local giving behaviour match this variation in need and does it go to the causes that most reflect local need? He outlines his findings and tells Andrew about the implications of the findings for local authorities, and where national policy and the ‘levelling up’ agenda can help.


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

This is a special episode of City Minutes looking at the findings of Cities Outlook 2024 – Centre for Cities’ annual snapshot of economic activity in the UK’s urban areas. In part 2, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss the importance of urban economies in the UK and why we’re all affected by urban areas’ economic performance over time.


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