City Talks: Mike Emmerich on Britain’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.

Listen to the episode below or download it directly at this link (right click and save target as). You can also subscribe to this series on iTunes or Stitcher. The rss feed is http://centreforcities.podbean.com/feed/.