our work
Our annual Cities
Outlook report evaluates the economic performance of the UK’s 64
main cities, is read widely in Whitehall, Westminster and cities across
the UK, and receives extensive media coverage. Cities Outlook 2010
showed how the gap between Britain’s cities has widened during the
recession, and we are now examining how more private sector jobs can be
created in both buoyant and struggling cities.
Through our Partner
City programme we work with specific cities, to produce new
solutions and fresh thinking on the challenges and opportunities that
they and other cities face. We publish tailored research reports on each
of our partner cities, as well as featuring them as case studies
throughout our work. In 2010 we are partnering with Sheffield, Derby,
Croydon, Brighton and Hastings, and we will be expanding our city
network further in the course of the year to include others. Previous
partner cities include Belfast, Cambridge, Hull, Liverpool, and York.
2010 research
Our 2010 core research programme will focus on helping UK cities to
support private sector employment growth.
Our major workstream, Agenda for Growth, will offer
practical policy advice on what national Government and cities can do to
promote private sector growth as the driver of the economy. This
research stream will discuss the future drivers of urban growth over the
next decade - from skills and enterprise to infrastructure and finance,
and call upon the Government to give more powers to cities and
city-regions.
Within Agenda for Growth, we will publish a report looking at business growth in cities and asking what
levers policy-makers can use to help drive private sector employment
growth in a tight public spending climate. This programme of work will
involve roundtables and seminars alongside published outputs.
Later in the autumn, we will produce further research looking
specifically at struggling cities – those which have been badly hit by
the recession and are struggling in the recovery. We’ll be putting
forward our ideas for what the future of physical regeneration
policy could look like.
Alongside these major reports, we will be producing work on a range of
other issues vital to the economic health of cities – including the
public spending debate, housing, planning, the future for RDAs, and the
skills of urban workforces.
The Centre for Cities will also undertake consultancy projects on issues
relevant to our core research throughout the year. This will include
work on the economic linkages between cities, something we have already
undertaken in research on the five biggest city regions in the North and
will be looking to develop further in other places.
We work with partners and sponsors from both private and public sectors
throughout our research programme: recent sponsors include ASDA, IBM,
the John Lewis Partnership, Openreach, Network Rail and the Local
Government Association.
For further information on our research programme, please contact:
Jonathan Seager,
Senior Analyst
020 7803 4306
Chris Webber, Senior
Analyst
020 7803 4314
