Government departments are currently preparing their submissions for the Treasury’s upcoming Spending Review. Here is Centre for Cities’ key research to help inform this work.
In advance of the Spending Review this Autumn, government departments are currently making their cases to the Treasury for the funding they need. As was the case for last year’s Spending Review, these submissions are expected to be guided by the ‘priority outcomes’ set by each department. This blog pulls together Centre for Cities’ research on a number of these priority areas to help civil servants as they put their bids together.
Unsurprisingly, a recurring theme running through the priorities for departments is levelling up. Centre for Cities has produced a large body of work on levelling up in recent months. The overarching paper bringing this work together is So you want to Level up? This sets out how levelling up should be defined, what it should look to achieve and what policies should be used to do this. There are a number of briefings that sit alongside this, such as one exploring why large UK cities underperform economically when compared to their European comparators and one assessing what lessons Nissan’s investment in Sunderland tells us about levelling up.
Centre for Cities is also working on comparing the public transport systems of UK and European large cities, which will be published next month. Any civil servants interested in this should get in touch.
Reaching net zero is another key theme for the Spending Review, and is likely to have even greater weight this year as Glasgow plays host to COP26. Centre for Cities’ recent research Net zero: Decarbonising the city sets out the role that cities have to play if the UK is to hit its net zero targets, and what tools local and national leaders have in making this happen.
How and where we build new homes will also impact our ability to reach net zero. Delivering housing was a key goal for MHCLG last year and it would be surprising if it wasn’t the case this year too. Planning for the Future shows why planning reform is so needed if this goal is ever going to be achieved.
Finally, attracting inward investment to grow local economies is likely to be a key goal for the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Building Back Better explores why, how and where jobs were created across the UK during the 2013 to 2019 ‘jobs miracle’ and sets out why this matters for places’ economic prosperity.
Centre for Cities continues to have conversations with colleagues in Whitehall on these themes, and we encourage you to get in touch if you would like to discuss any of the research above or our wider research areas.
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