articles & blogs 2007
UK cities in the world: 2008 and beyond
Date: 17/12/2007
Author: Max Nathan, Research Associate
This article by Max Nathan, Centre for Cities Research Associate looks at important trends in urbanisation patterns and the role of cities in the global economy.
Elections and Expectations: Urban Politics in 2008
Date: 17/12/2007
Author: Tony Travers, Director, Greater London Group, LSE
This article, by Tony Travers, Director, Greater London Group, LSE, looks into why 2008 will be an important year in Britain’s urban politics.
Time to make more powerful and successful cities
Publication: Public Servant
Date: 28/11/2007
Author: Dermot Finch
Britain’s cities face huge economic challenges - but new powers to help them meet the task are now there for the taking.
Cities in the driving seat?
Publication: Local Government Chronicle
Date: 22/11/2007
Author: Adam Marshall and Ben Harrison
Local asset-backed vehicles have been designed to allow cities to deliver growth. Adam Marshall and Ben Harrison examine how this could work.
Where next for the Core Cities?
Date: 14/11/2007
Author: Dermot Finch
Director's speech from the NWDA Economic Prosperity conference in Manchester, setting out our view on the current momentum towards devolution to cities.
Let cities control their destinies
Publication: Times Public Agenda
Date: 30/10/2007
Author: Emily Ford
“We live in a country of two-track cities,” says Dermot Finch, director of the Centre for Cities think-tank.
Michael Heseltine and the Conservative Urban Taskforce
Date: 28/10/2007
Author: Ben Harrison
Lord Heseltine's Urban Taskforce is due to issue its final report soon. Could the Tories succeed in reforming local governance arrangements?
Time to reach agreement on Business Rate Supplements
Publication: Transport Times
Date: 15/10/2007
Author: Adam Marshall
In recent years, many local transport projects – Metrolink, New Street Station, Leeds Supertram – have become watch-words for protracted funding battles between central and local government. The process is invariably the same. With councils unable to fund the capital costs of schemes themselves, they march cap-in-hand to Whitehall, where their priorities rarely receive more than a sympathetic hearing from Ministers.
Centre for Cities: Party Conferences 2007
Date: 09/10/2007
Author: Centre for Cities
The Centre for Cities once again attended all three party conferences this year. We ran two fringe events at each conference: our Cities Question Time (sponsored by DLA Piper) and another on transport (sponsored by Virgin Trains). This short report brings together the key points from these events, plus some general observations on the state of the urban agenda in each of the three main political parties.
The Housing Green Paper - Meeting the affordability challenge?
Publication: Public Policy Research
Date: 03/10/2007
Author: Ben Harrison
Following Gordon Brown's move next door to No. 10 Downing Street, housing has shot up the political agenda.
Time to show we mean business
Publication: Local Government Chronicle
Date: 20/09/2007
Author: Adam Marshall
Since the arrival of Prime Minister Brown, and the publication of the Sub-National Review in July, there’s been a new impetus towards Supplementary Business Rates (SBRs). Surprisingly, councils and business leaders agree on a lot: the need for greater financial devolution, local decision-making, and stronger joint working. They also agree that ring-fenced, time-limited SBRs, with appropriate reliefs for small businesses, could generate new resources for transport investment in England’s major cities.
Profile of Dermot Finch in Whitehall and Westminster World
Publication: Whitehall and Westminster World
Date: 13/09/2007
Author: Matt Mercer
A profile interview of Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, in Whitehall and Westminster World.
Financing Local Growth: the case for supplementary business rates
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 07/09/2007
Author: Ben Harrison
Proposals for supplementary business rates are gaining central government endorsement and some support from the organisations that will have to pay them. Ben Harrison argues the case for the finance-raising proposal.
The Housing Green Paper: What's in it for the North?
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 03/08/2007
Author: Max Nathan and Catherine Glossop
Housing has become a huge political issue. Ministers have responded with a major push for cheap homes, mostly in the Greater South East. So what does the Housing Green Paper offer Northern towns and cities? Is it enough?
How to… design an enterprise strategy – picking the priorities
Publication: New Start
Date: 07/07/2007
Author: Glenn Athey
We don’t know if there will be a LEGI 3 – we’re waiting on the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review. If there is a LEGI 3, then at around Christmas time, there will be quite a few new or updated local enterprise strategies. But an enterprise strategy needn’t just be for Christmas – there will be other funding opportunities which require well thought out strategies and projects.
It's time we helped the high flyers out of the tangle
Publication: New Start
Date: 22/06/2007
Author: Glenn Athey
In its attempt to make business support simpler the government’s managed to weave an ever more tangled web. Glenn Athey reports on the government's business support simplification initiative, and how it should be used as an opportunity to coherently set out the public sector role in business support.
Tax tool
Publication: Roof Magazine
Date: 21/06/2007
Author: Chris Webber
Gordon Brown’s acknowledgement that the Government needs to do better on housing is good news. Much of the new housing needed should be built on brownfield land, meaning that new funding mechanisms need to be introduced that will help local authorities attract developers to difficult sites. In the United States, city leaders use a system called Tax Increment Financing (TIF). The Government seems unenthusiastic about introducing TIF here, but it should think again.
How to... set up a successful City Development Company
Publication: New Start
Date: 20/05/2007
Author: Glenn Athey
The Centre for Cities' Dr Glenn Athey presents some lessons from experience on how to get the most out of a new CDC.
Fine, in theory...
Publication: New Start
Date: 05/05/2007
Author: Glenn Athey
Regeneration areas are often the worst places in which to use theories about market failure to make decisions, says Glenn Athey, Senior Economist at the Centre for Cities. It's time to put down the textbook, and take a reality check.
City driver: Dermot Finch, director, Centre for Cities
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 04/05/2007
Author: Ben Walker
It's Dermot Finch's day off. "I'm giving you a priority access interview," he says. "I should be watching daytime telly." Had life gone differently, he could have been on it. Finch was an enthusiastic thespian in his youth, and is a keen pianist. He missed out on becoming casting director for Coronation Street, a job he interviewed for in the 1990s. But many close to him say he still has a knack for light entertainment. "Oh, I love Dermot," says one young, female public affairs professional. "He's great. Such a laugh at lunch. Has he told you about his Yamaha keyboards? He's pretty good."
Devolution is the key to transport improvements
Publication: Transport Times
Date: 27/04/2007
Author: Chris Webber
Chris Webber discusses the need for greater devolution to secure improved local transport.
Time for action on Lyons' proposals
Publication: The Financial Times
Date: 16/04/2007
Author: Dermot Finch
A letter from Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, explaining why the real work for ministers and local and business leaders starts now, following the Lyons Review into Local Government.
Don't bury Lyons
Publication: Local Government Chronicle
Date: 12/04/2007
Author: Dermot Finch
A letter from Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, outlining why it would be a mistake to bury the Lyons Review into Local Government.
What's on the cards now for gambling?
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 06/04/2007
Author: Ben Harrison and Max Nathan
With the Lords rejecting its casino plans, the Government has a tough choice to make, say Ben Harrison and Max Nathan: put the contentious super-casino decision on the backburner, or risk sinking its gambling strategy.
Delivering Devolution
Publication: The House Magazine
Date: 04/04/2007
Author: Adam Marshall
Ministers must act on the Lyons Inquiry’s proposals to shift power away from the centre, argues Adam Marshall.
Inching towards local economic power
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 30/03/2007
Author: Adam Marshall
Sir Michael Lyons's cautious, incremental approach will create a stronger local economy, says Adam Marshall.
Time to loosen the green belt?
Publication: Prospect
Date: 01/02/2007
Author: Max Nathan
Last month, the Government made people very angry when it published economist Kate Barker’s Review of Land Use Planning. In a previous review, Barker recommended the UK build an extra 140,000 houses a year. Now she wants the Government to rethink the whole green belt approach, encouraging cities to build out into the countryside.
Expect gradual reform rather than fireworks
Publication: Local Government Chornicle
Date: 25/01/2007
Dermot Finch, Director of the Centre for Cities, on what we can expect from Gordon Brown when he becomes Prime Minister.
Devolution can get us back on buses
Publication: Regeneration and Renewal
Date: 05/01/2007
Author: Adam Marshall
Plans to boost transport authorities' powers are great news for the bus network, writes Adam Marshall.
