Centre for Cities

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dr Tasos Kitsos, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and International Business and member of the Centre for Business Prosperity, Aston Business School, Aston University and Holly Lewis, co-founding partner of We Made That. They discuss the findings of Tasos’ new paper ‘Don’t Shoot the Pianist: Creative Firms, Workers, and Neighborhood Gentrification’, written alongside Max Nathan and Diana Gutiérrez-Posada.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by George Freeman MP, former Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology and currently a Global Growth and Trade Envoy for this government. They discuss the upcoming national Industrial Strategy, the possibility of the UK becoming a science superpower and the role of R+D in levelling up. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, to discuss the findings of our flagship report 'Cities Outlook’, our annual health check of the economic performance of urban Britain. They discuss variation in wages across the country, what drives this variation, and what policy will need to do for the Government to achieve its aim of raising living standards everywhere.

In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by the Rt Hon Greg Clark, newly appointed member of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council and previously Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Greg shares his reflections on the English Devolution White Paper published this week and how he sees Industrial Strategy and English Devolution fitting together.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director and Maurice Lange, Analyst to discuss the findings of our new report series ‘Restarting housebuilding’ that looks at Private and Public housebuilding as well as Land Value Capture. They discuss the current policy landscape, including the Government's pledge to build 1.5million new homes, and the implications of these reports for any future housebuilding reforms.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst, and Oscar Selby, Researcher, to discuss Centre for Cities’ new report, ‘Spending time: the role of the visitor economy in UK cities’. The report explores what visitors to different places spend their money on and how this shapes local economies.

Andrew, Rob and Oscar discuss the key findings from the report, including which cities can be classed as a destinations and the differences between day and overnight visitors. 

In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Mark Muro, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, to discuss place based industrial strategy.

They explore what the UK can learn from the US, the CHIPS Act, as well as the implications of Donald Trump's re-election.

This episode of City Talks is taken from a recent Centre for Cities keynote event with The Rt Hon Greg Clark, in partnership with Warwick Business School.

MP for Tunbridge Wells from 2005 - 2024, Greg Clark served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury as well as many other Ministerial positions.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter joined Greg to discuss his time in government, industrial strategy and devolution.

In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Giles Wilkes, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, specialist partner at Flint Global and former advisor to Vince Cable and Theresa May to discuss industrial strategy and the recent Green Paper.

They explore what we might expect from this Government's strategy, some of the similarities with the 2017 version, as well as what merits, if any, come from having an industrial strategy in this country.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Anthony Breach, Associate Director at Centre for Cities, to discuss our latest briefing on the upcoming English Devolution White Paper. They discuss their concerns on where the devolution debate currently is and some of the unresolved questions and issues still circulating around the purpose of devolution, what is trying to be achieved and how it should be progressed.

In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Sarah Hall, 1931 Professor of Geography and Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge. They discuss her research on the economic geography of financial services and the uneven economic development that results from global finance dynamics.

In addition, Sarah and Andrew consider these global finance networks and how cities like London maintain their influence in global markets, particularly in the wake of Brexit.

Ed Glaeser has written several books on the role of cities in creating prosperity over the last two decades – including The Triumph of the City in 2008. In this podcast, Ed and Andrew consider the future of cities as places of work, consumption, and economic activity.

In this episode of City Talks Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Arpit Gupta, Associate Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business, to discuss his research into the dynamics of urban real estate markets, and how they have evolved in response to changes in remote working and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Andrew discusses how urban economics is advancing – from new topics and new sources of data to the theoretical developments of the moment – with three people immersed in the latest research.

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, Helen Simpson, Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, and Max Nathan, Professor of Economic Geography at University College London. They discuss the state of research about urban economies in 2024.

We are constantly finding out more about where people live and work, how people move around, where businesses choose to locate, and where people spend their money – all of which adds more depth to our picture of cities. The three researchers describe how new topics are emerging, the enduring relevance of some core urban questions, and how new sources of data – and innovative tools for processing it – are moving research forward, at a time of increasing demand for evidence to shape policy. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Caitlin Rollison, External Affairs Manager, and Audrey-Frédérique Lavoie, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, to discuss Centre for Cities' new report, Accelerating net zero delivery: What can UK cities learn from around the world?

The report explores the need to change how we build, how we move, and how we power our cities in order to meet the government's target of net zero by 2050.

Andrew, Caitlin and Audrey discuss the role cities play in helping the UK meet its net zero target and what they should focus on to bring greenhouse gas emissions down.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Analyst, to discuss Centre for Cities' new report, Return to the office: How London compares to other global cities, and why this matters.

New data published by Centre for Cities reveals that central London's return to the office has continued in 2024 but it falls behind in comparison to its international competitors: Paris, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Toronto.

Andrew and Rob discuss the reports findings on behaviours and attitudes towards hybrid working, and what the future holds for the office.

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by Brian Groom, author and journalist, whose latest book is Made in Manchester: A People’s History of the City That Shaped the Modern World. The Victorians had a phrase, ‘What Manchester thinks today, the world does tomorrow’. Brian discusses the city’s external global image and the web of contradictory political, economic and cultural associations it has had throughout its history.

This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Listen back to Centre for Cities’ previous conversation with Brian Groom on City Talks for a discussion of his previous work, Northerners: A History from the Ice Age to the Present Day.

Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director, to discuss Centre for Cities’ new report, Climbing the Summit: Big cities in the UK and the G7.

How does the geography of the G7’s economies alter our understanding of how well each nation performs? The report highlights the underperformance of the UK’s largest cities relative to their G7 peers, and how this creates a yawning prosperity gap between the UK and G7 leaders the USA, France and Germany. Why are large places like Manchester and Birmingham, that should have an inherent productivity advantage given their size, falling behind? Paul and Ant talk discuss what the next Government should do to try and address the shortfall.

This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Minutes series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by James L. Tatum III, Director of Detroit Bureau at the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, for a discussion about Detroit, a place which suffered the biggest municipal insolvency in history when it filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013. They discuss the city’s route back to financial stability and the recovery of its reputation in municipal bond markets. James Tatum is the author of a recent report, An Assessment of Detroit’s Economic Condition and a Critique of its Economic Development Efforts, to be followed by a second paper on the Detroit’s bankruptcy later this month.

This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Tim Leunig, who has had a notable career being a policy adviser to several senior Cabinet figures including two Chancellors as well as being an award winning economic history academic at the London School of Economics. He talks here about his role in the Government’s Covid-19 furlough scheme, how think tanks can build trust and influence in Whitehall, and what economic historians can teach policymakers.

This episode is part of Centre for Cities’ City Talks series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it. To stay updated on Tim Leunig’s work, subscribe to his Substack.