The UK’s economy is driven by the success of its largest cities and towns, which generate opportunities and prosperity for people in all parts of the country.
Our mission is to help the UK’s largest cities and towns realise their economic potential.
We produce rigorous, data-driven research and policy ideas to help cities, large towns and Government address the challenges and opportunities they face – from boosting productivity and wages to preparing for Brexit and the changing world of work.
We also work closely with urban leaders, Whitehall and business to ensure our work is relevant, accessible and of practical use to cities, large towns and policy makers.
In partnership with LSE, we run the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, which analyses which policies are most effective in supporting and increasing local economic growth.
The Centre was set up in 2005 by Lord Sainsbury of Turville as an independent, non-partisan research organisation. It is a registered charity (No 1119841) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England (No 6215397).
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.
This briefing presents two new indexes to summarise and compare the performance of the UK's largest cities and towns. The findings have implications for policy, particularly the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda.
The underperformance of big cities is at the heart of the North-South divide. If the Government is to ‘level up’ the economy then it needs to tackle this major economic problem.
This report sets out how the Government should use the devolution white paper to reorganise and simplify local government to level up the country.
This report calls for a simplification of the Treasury's Green Book methodology, stronger local government, and a Government strategy and resources to achieve levelling up.
