Professor Michael Parkinson CBE

Director, European Institute for Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University

Michael is Director of the European Institute for Urban Affairs at Liverpool John Moores University.  He is leading for DG Regio and ESPON ‘Secondary Cities in Europe: Performance, Policies and Prospects’,  a multi-national project on the contribution of secondary cities to the performance of European economies.  He completed a major study of the impact of the recession ‘The Credit Crunch, Recession, Regeneration, and the North: What’s Happening, What’s Working, What’s Next’ which updated his report to government in 2009 ‘The Credit Crunch and Regeneration: Impact and Implications.’  He produced the ‘State of the English Cities’ Report in 2006 for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - the authoritative analysis of cities in Britain.  He led the Department of Communities and Local Government’s expert panel on Regeneration and Economic Development Analysis.  He was Director of the ESRC’s Programme on CITIES: Cohesion and Competitiveness, a major five-year research programme involving 25 Universities.

Michael has acted as adviser on urban affairs to the European Commission, OECD, EUROCITIES, the Department of Communities and Local Government, the National Audit Office, the House of Commons Select Committees, the Core Cities and a range of cities in the UK.  He lectures extensively nationally and internationally and is a regular contributor to the media.

Michael was made Commander of the British Empire for services to urban regeneration in 2007.