Urban public transport networks in Britain not only vary between cities, but also differ when compared to their European counterparts. Comparisons of this nature offer multiple lessons for how to improve the networks and infrastructure of big UK cities.
Ten case studies comparing the public transport networks and urban form of UK and Western European cities
Major cities across the North are lagging behind their European counterparts in providing access to quality public transport networks, costing the Northern economy more than £16bn in lost productivity.
This report examines whether intra-urban public transport plays a role in the underperformance of big British cities and sets out the implications that transport has for the levelling up agenda.
Poor urban transport costs the UK more than £21 billion per year, with less than half of people in big cities outside London able to reach their city centre quickly using public transport networks
Senior Analyst Anthony Breach and Researcher Guilherme Rodrigues join Andrew Carter to discuss the main findings of their recent report comparing intra-urban public transport in the UK and Europe’s biggest cities.
How public transport reforms in Portugal could be replicated in Greater Manchester and other UK city regions.
Cities Outlook 2022 looks in-depth at the state of UK high streets to get a sense of the short-term impact of the pandemic on Britain's town and city centres and the long-term consequences and implications this has for the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Covid-19 has ‘levelled down’ prosperous high streets, but poorer areas face bigger problems this year
Not all high streets have been evenly affected by Covid-19, Cambridge and Mansfield serve as telling examples.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel and Analyst Valentine Quinio to unpack the main findings and implications of Cities Outlook 2022
How have two years and three lockdowns changed our shopping habits, and what does this mean for the future of our city and town centres?
Our analysis shows that the city centres that were the strongest performers pre-pandemic were hardest hit by Covid-19
Because the vast majority of UK economic activity takes place in the largest 63 cities and towns, they are crucial to the levelling up agenda.
Five key questions to ask as we await the imminent publication of the Levelling Up White Paper
Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney assesses the long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper
Yesterday’s white paper is good in its intentions, but falls down on its longer-term vision and funding to support this
In advance of the Government’s forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper, this briefing sets out what the levelling up agenda should aim to achieve and a strategy for achieving it.
A collection of views from urban leaders across the country in advance of the Levelling Up White Paper.
This report outlines how Mayors provide the Government with the opportunity to develop a new effective set of regional economic development policies to level up across the country and contribute to increasing the UK’s rate of economic growth.
As part of our ongoing work into levelling up, we've produced a four-part blog series and accompanying City Minutes episodes which explore the nature of the cities versus towns debate and identify what needs to happen to bring greater prosperity to struggling towns.
Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel on the relationship between UK cities and towns and the implications this has for people and policy makers.
Ignoring the relationship between cities and towns makes it harder to bring greater prosperity to struggling towns.
Why levelling up towns must mean increasing investment in skills, housing stock and the attractiveness of a place – in conjunction with improving the performance of cities.
Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel on how we can level up struggling towns and why improving the performance of cities will be crucial to levelling up towns across the UK.
Why transport policy shouldn’t be at the core of the levelling up agenda.
Why investment in rural towns should focus on skills, health and social infrastructure.
This report examines the pattern of private sector growth within the UK’s seven-year jobs miracle to inform how new jobs can be created as the Government looks to ‘build back better’ and level up the country.
This report, published in partnership with Clarion Housing Group, analyses how the pandemic has affected people’s spending, saving and debt, and evaluates what this means for the recovery of the UK’s cities and largest towns.
As the COVID-19 pandemic sends shockwaves through the labour market, Centre for Cities tracks the latest unemployment claim statistics across the UK's cities and largest towns.
Explore the scale of the COVID—19 outbreak in cities and towns from March 2020 — March 2022
Almost 10 million new jobs will need to be generated to recover from the pandemic, making job creation the most pressing policy challenge we face in the immediate future.
Centre for Cities tracks the recovery of high streets in Britain's cities and large towns from the Coronavirus pandemic.
Explore the results of the mayoral elections in Greater London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, West of England and West Yorkshire.
Find out everything there is to know about the 2021 metro mayoral elections through polling data, podcast discussions and post-election analysis from Centre for Cities.
Andy Burnham has been re-elected as the Mayor of Greater Manchester. Now he must build back better from the pandemic and improve the economy and people’s living standards for the long-term.
The candidates have prepared proposals and new ideas for their cities. Anthony Breach sets out what they mean for cities and urban politics more generally.
Andrew Carter is joined by three distinguished guests to discuss the ins and outs of the upcoming mayoral elections, with a focus on Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and London.
There is overwhelming public support for devolution to many of England’s largest cities according to Centre for Cities’ polling by Savanta ComRes ahead of the metro mayor elections in May 2021.
Want to know how your city fares on key indicators like population, start-ups and housing?
Go to the city-by-city page
This episode of City Talks explores the findings of the NAO’s Supporting Local Economic Growth report.
Chief Executive Andrew Carter speaks with four mayoral candidates ahead of the upcoming South Yorkshire elections to discuss their priorities for improving the city region’s economy
Browse our annual flagship reports.
Cities Outlook 2022 looks in-depth at the state of UK high streets to get a sense of the short-term impact of the pandemic on Britain's town and city centres and the long-term consequences and implications this has for the Government’s levelling up agenda.
After the most challenging of years, Cities Outlook 2021 assesses the impact of Covid on urban life and on the Government’s promise to level up the economy.
Poor air quality impacts on the health of residents and workers in cities in particular. Cities Outlook 2020 calls for urgent action from local and national government to clean up the air we breathe.
As a decade of austerity comes to end, this year’s edition of Cities Outlook looks at how city spending has changed.
We actively look to partner with like-minded businesses, universities and funders to help us realise our ambition to improve the economic performance of the UK's largest cities and towns.
Find out how to partner with us