Can and should the US learn lessons from their smaller, more modest neighbours across the water?  During my time as a senior policy advisor at the Treasury and at the British Embassy in Washington I saw a lot of ‘'one way traffic", with a constant stream of UK ministers queuing up to glean ideas from America on how we can improve our cities.

Now I'm at the Centre for Cities - a research and policy institute, helping UK cities improve their economic performance - I'm in Washington today for the Brookings Institution's Summit for American Prosperity doing my bit to show that the policy lessons can go both ways.

The Summit could be hugely influential in the next US administration's agenda on cities.  The likes of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels and Pennsylvania's Governor Edward Rendell will all be there discussing their ideas about how to make US urban areas or ‘metros' better places to be.

Our research with Brookings, out today, shows that while we Brits export products and services around the world, we don't export as many good policies - especially those that boost city economies - when we actually have a lot we should be showcasing.  The Yanks could learn from London's Congestion Charge for example - which has resulted in traffic falling by a fifth and bus use up by 15% since it was introduced in 2002.  Ruth Kelly backed Manchester's own charge proposals earlier in the week, the first major UK city outside London to follow suit.  US cities Miami, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco, who are currently considering their own congestion charges should look to London's to learn from its successes and its potential pitfalls.

US cities could also learn from the UK's track record on holding back urban sprawl.  By putting ‘town centres first' in planning controls we've kept the high street alive.  By setting ‘density targets' on brownfield sites, rather than build on green belts, we've seen a national drive to re-cycle urban land.  And family tax credits have provided a safety net for low income families in our major cities, where unemployment and poverty are most heavily concentrated. The idea of family tax credits actually came from the States originally, but the UK's system is more generous and is paid more regularly.  The US is now looking again at their 33 year old system to see how they can improve it.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's visit with London's new mayor last month, and their promise to swap expertise and personnel on the best policies in both cities suggests we could see more two-way traffic between the States and the UK.   In this US election year, we'd like to see the next US administration engage in a similar two-way dialogue with the UK - to further an unfinished urban renaissance on both sides of the Atlantic.

A version of this article first appeared on Joe Public, part of SocietyGuardian.co.uk