Speaking at the launch of the new report by Lord Rogers and the Urban Task Force, Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, said:

"The Centre for Cities is pleased to host today's report. Cities have definitely got better since the first Task Force report in 1999. That's mainly been due to the UK's steady macro-economic performance.

"Design issues are important. But economic ones must come first. Increased output, employment and investment - more than better design - have been the key to the turnaround of our major cities. Government policy has helped, but now faces new challenges.

"Despite some regional hot spots, there's a growing gap between our successful and struggling urban areas. Low skills and a lack of jobs are holding many places back.

"Many of our cities and towns are still not punching their weight. We need smarter investment in transport to connect up our cities and towns. And we need to give cities greater powers and incentives to deliver their own growth."

Task Force recommendations:

The Centre for Cities says the recommendations on delivery and fiscal frameworks are key.

• We agree that there are too many overlapping regeneration delivery vehicles. But the problem is rooted deeper than that. Powers and funding are poorly matched. For key functions such as transport, skills, planning and economic development, we need powers and funding to be devolved towards city-regions. Only then will the right decisions be made, by the right people.
  
• We agree that fiscal incentives should be strengthened. At the moment, cities and towns have very little incentive to promote their own growth. We want to see direct rewards in place, so they get to keep a bigger slice of the growth they generate. And we need specific incentives to encourage cross-boundary working within city-regions.
  
• The Centre for Cities will be reporting soon on this. Our City Leadership report on financial devolution to cities will be published on 24 February.

Finally, the Task Force report highlights the growth in city-centre living over the past decade. The Centre for Cities will publish its own report on this in January.

Notes to Editors:

1. ippr's Centre for Cities today (Tuesday) hosted the launch of the Urban Task Force's new report, Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance. Lord Rogers of Riverside and other members of the Task Force presented the report's findings at Tate Britain, London. Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, chaired a discussion on the report.

2. In 1998, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott invited Lord Rogers to chair the Urban Task Force, to identify the causes of urban decline and to establish a vision for our cities based on the principles of design excellence, social well-being and environmental responsibility. Its final report, Towards an Urban Renaissance (1999), and the subsequent Urban White Paper (2000), set the initial framework for the Government's urban regeneration policy.

3. The Centre for Cities is an independent urban research unit, based at ippr. It is taking a fresh look at how cities function, focusing on the economic drivers behind urban growth and change - skills, investment, enterprise. The Centre is carrying out three research projects in Barnsley, Birmingham, Derby, Doncaster, Dundee, Liverpool, Manchester and Sunderland. They are City People, City Leadership and City Markets. City People reports on 11 January and will explain the recent trend of city-centre living; City Leadership reports in February and examines the case for more devolution to cities; City Markets is focusing on business growth in deprived areas, and will report by May.