Centre for Cities – Details, episodes & analysis

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.

This is a special episode of City Minutes looking at the findings of Cities Outlook 2024 – Centre for Cities’ annual snapshot of economic activity in the UK’s urban areas. In part 2, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss the importance of urban economies in the UK and why we’re all affected by urban areas’ economic performance over time.

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

This special episode of City Minutes examines the findings of Cities Outlook 2024 – Centre for Cities’ flagship economic health check of the UK’s urban areas. In part 1, Andrew Carter is joined by Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss Chapters One and Two of the report, where Centre for Cities shows what has happened to people’s incomes up and down the country since 2010, a record period of historically weak productivity growth.

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 Dr Lucy Montague, Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture and co-author (with David Rudlin and Vicky Payne) of High Street: How Our Town Centres Can Bounce Back from the Retail Crisis (RIBA Publishing, 2023), which surveys the current state of the UK’s bricks-and-mortar retail sector in a hundred case studies – from traditional high streets to out-of-town retail developments, in places both big and small.

They discuss what happened in the sector during the 00s and 10s, the origins of the current crisis, and the impact of Covid. Despite its many challenges, Lucy finds reasons for optimism on the high street, as long as the UK is open to change – whether it’s stronger planning policy to encourage a greater mix of uses or action on business rates reform.

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 Cllr Huw Thomas, Labour Leader of Cardiff City Council since 2017. Cllr Thomas talks about Cardiff’s economic role in the city-region, describes the balance between competition and collaboration that it takes to make city-region devolution succeed, and explains why leading a city council is “a job like no other”.

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

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Cllr Mike Ross, Liberal Democrat Leader of Hull City Council since May 2022. They discuss Cllr Ross’ lessons from over twenty years of public life, how the city used the experience of being City of Culture to change perceptions and put Hull on the map, and the question of devolution in East Yorkshire and the Humber.

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

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Alex Niven, Lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University and author of several books including The North will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands (Bloomsbury, 2023). They discuss attempts to revive the economic fortunes and empower the people of the North of England after deindustrialisation, questions of Northern identity and Alex’s immersion in the poetry and culture of the Northeast.

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 Cllr Jane Mudd, Labour Leader of Newport City Council since 2019. They discuss her stance on working with business to improve the city-region, the changes the city is making to improve transport sustainability, and what Newport’s status as the ‘Gateway to Wales’ means for her as leader.

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

Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, is joined by John Stevenson, who is the MP for Carlisle, Chair of the Northern Research Group of MPs and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Key Cities. The two discuss the role Carlisle plays in its regional economy, why the Northern Research Group of MPs is pressing for more devolution of powers from Westminster to the North of England, and what John has learned about leadership during his time in the House of Commons.

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