Cities Outlook 2024

As well as providing a deep dive into the latest economic data on the UK’s cities and largest towns, Cities Outlook 2024 looks back at how cities have fared since 2010.

Bridge / building on Liverpool Street / woman cycling along street

Cost of Living Levelling up Productivity

Cities Outlook 2024

With 2024 a likely election year, this year's Cities Outlook looks back at how cities have fared since 2010 and where the economy would be today had pre-2010 trends continued.

Cost of Living Levelling up Productivity

Just how well have places fared since 2010?

Paul Swinney

The UK economy has flatlined, and all parts of the country are suffering. This won’t change unless productivity growth improves.

Cost of Living Levelling up Productivity

City Minutes

City Minutes: Cities Outlook 2024

Series: City Minutes

In a two-part series of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes podcast, Chief Executive Andrew Carter and Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney explore the findings and implications of the Centre’s annual snapshot of urban economies across the UK.

Cost of Living Levelling up Productivity

Every part of the UK has been levelled down since 2010, leaving average person £10,200 poorer

No part of the UK has escaped the impact of the flatlining of the UK economy since 2010, according to new analysis by Centre for Cities in Cities Outlook 2024.

Metro mayors

Explore our work on mayors, including answers to the most frequently-asked questions about metro mayors, a series of expert podcasts and events looking more closely at their role, their impact, and their future, and polling data looking at the public’s awareness of mayors and what they’ve achieved.

Devolution Levelling up Mayors

Everything you need to know about metro mayors

Centre for Cities

What are metro mayors and what do they do?

Aerial shot of Hartlepool, rows of houses with the sea in the background

Mayors

What voter turnout will tell us about the success of devolution in next week’s mayoral elections

Audrey-Frédérique Lavoie

On 2 May, 10 metro mayors and over two thousand local councillors will be elected across England. As in any election, the outcome most people will look at will be the winning candidates. But...

Bristol harbour, colourful rows of houses

Devolution Mayors

2024 Local Elections – Implications for urban England

Jess Tulasiewicz

The English local elections on 2 May will mark a key moment in 2024’s busy political calendar. Polling day will see voters in 107 councils go to the polls to elect 2,660 councillors, with Labour...

Liverpool at nighttime with a bus in motion

Mayors Transport

Why metro mayors should lead on transport policy

Caitlin Rollison

Ahead of the 2024 Mayoral Elections on 2 May, Centre for Cities polled people in nine of the mayoralties going to the ballot box to understand public awareness of the mayoral institution and...

Levelling up

Levelling up should improve standards of living across the country and help every place to reach its productivity potential, with a focus on improving the performance of the UK’s biggest cities as a means to address regional inequalities.

Devolution Levelling up

Local economic policy making: where’s the evidence?

Rob Johnson

Basing policy on evidence should be the norm. You’d be hard pressed to find a person at any level of government who wouldn’t agree that policy should, whenever possible, be enacted on clear...

Devolution Levelling up

L.A. Evidential: Improving evidence use in local economic policy making

Rob Johnson

This report sets out the three ‘pillars’ that support evidence-based policy making, and explores why each one falls down when it comes to local economic development

Devolution Levelling up Mayors

The metro mayors are shifting democracy out of Westminster – here’s how to help them do it

Anthony Breach

We’ve all heard the cliché that ‘all politics is local’. But in England, it might be more accurate to say that ‘most politics is national’. In recent years, local elections for councils...

Devolution Levelling up Mayors Productivity

Who is Labour turning to for advice and ideas on regional policy?

Andrew Carter

After the 2010 election the Coalition Government, and in particular the Conservative Prime Minister and Chancellor, quickly realised that as part of their plan for repairing the damage done by the...

Net zero

What needs to change if urban areas are to lead the way in decarbonising the UK’s economy, without leaving people and places behind?

Net zero

Green cities: The role of urban Britain in reaching net zero

Audrey-Frédérique Lavoie

Three key takeaways on how cities compare to one another in terms of greenhouse gas emissions

Net zero Transport Unemployment

Fare outcomes: Understanding transport in Wales’s cities

Guilherme Rodrigues and Matthew Coombes

Centre for Cities in partnership with TUC Wales show how increasing public transport use in Wales will help Welsh Government boost economic growth and reach net zero.

Future of cities Net zero

“Cities are bad for the environment” – myth debunked

Valentine Quinio

In fact, cities have a much lower carbon footprint compared to non-urban areas and must play a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

Air quality Net zero

Why Sadiq Khan should stand firm on ULEZ

Paul Swinney

Air pollution kills. It’s a shame few politicians have dared point this out in recent weeks.

Housing

Centre for Cities' latest research and analysis on housing and planning

Future of cities High Streets Housing

Which cities are the UK’s tourist hot spots?

Oscar Selby

By counting visits to Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb rentals between July and September 2023, the ONS have recently released data on the UK’s short-term lets market. This novel dataset reveals...

Busy street with people walking over a crossing

Coronavirus Housing

The case for a 2026 ‘corrections’ Census

Maurice Lange

The 2021 Census was conducted in the height of Covid-19. We need another Census to provide local-level data we can trust.

Coronavirus Future of cities Housing Transport

During Covid, people leaving London chose non-urban areas over big cities

Xuanru Lin and Maurice Lange

What impact, if any, did the pandemic have on London’s population? Did people move further out of London? Were people shifting away from urban living? And did any changes persist once restrictions had eased? Explores our findings in more detail

Future of cities Housing

What happened to London’s population during the Covid pandemic?

Maurice Lange

What impact, if any, did the pandemic have on London’s population? Explore our key findings in 6 figures

Productivity

Centre for Cities' latest research and analysis on housing and planning

Devolution Levelling up Mayors Productivity

Who is Labour turning to for advice and ideas on regional policy?

Andrew Carter

After the 2010 election the Coalition Government, and in particular the Conservative Prime Minister and Chancellor, quickly realised that as part of their plan for repairing the damage done by the...

Coronavirus Cost of Living Levelling up Productivity

UK child poverty is up, a result of a decade of levelling down

Rob Johnson

Identifying both the causes and potential remedies for record increases in child poverty requires looking at the sub-national level

Cost of Living Productivity The Future of Work

The UK's productivity puzzle

Fixing the nation’s economic stagnation means getting its frontier firing again

Paul Swinney

The UK has lost its cutting edge, with implications for growth across the country.

Cost of Living Productivity

UK has become the sick man of Europe since 2010. Politicians must get a grip on the economy

The Big Issue

Research from Cities Outlook 2024 has revealed people are on average £10,200 poorer since 2010. Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney writes in the Big Issue about why a return to economic growth must be a priority, and the polices the next Government should pursue to help get there.

Current issues

Cities Outlook 2024

City Minutes

Metro mayors

Levelling up

Net zero

Housing

Productivity

The UK's productivity puzzle

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