A think-tank report examined the importance of integrated transport policies to city economies, and how to create better integrated public transport networks in city-regions.
Source: John Preston, Adam Marshall and Lena Tochtermann, On the Move: Delivering integrated transport in Britain's cities, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A think-tank report said that policies by cities designed to promote innovation were too narrowly focused on science and technology, and had created overlapping business and innovation support services. The best way to support innovation was to make the city as a whole a more attractive place to do business. Overstretched transport links, slow planning decisions, and unaffordable housing were stifling innovation and its related economic benefits.
Source: Chris Webber, Innovation, Science and the City, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Oct
A report examined the potential costs and benefits of using new and existing funding tools to deliver major regeneration projects, with particular consideration given to the use of financial tools to bridge the gaps in core project funding. The application of a mix of new local funding tools, to support enabling infrastructure investments, could deliver significant benefits to local areas with the potential to generate long-term economic gains to the Treasury.
Source: Unlocking City Growth: Interim findings on new funding mechanisms, Core Cities Group (0161 242 5909) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Date: 2008-Sep
A report called for the government to increase its efforts to help cities adjust to globalization. Although the United Kingdom as a whole gained from global trade – and some cities like Reading and Milton Keynes had grown – other traditional industrial urban areas like Bradford and Doncaster were not benefiting as much from the global economy and could lose out further.
Source: Hannah Brown, UK Cities in the Global Economy, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2008-Sep
A think-tank report said that attempts to regenerate inner cities had failed, and the gap between struggling and average cities, let alone between struggling and affluent cities, had continued to grow. There was no realistic prospect that many towns and cities in the north could converge with London and the south east region. There was, however, a very real prospect of encouraging significant numbers of people to move from those areas, and it proposed a significant liberalization of land use in London and the south east to allow this to happen.
Source: Tim Leunig, James Swaffield and Oliver Marc Hartwich, Cities Unlimited: Making urban regeneration work, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report | IPPR press release | NLGN press release | CPRE press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Aug
A think-tank report called on the government to deliver on its pledge to build 3 million new homes by 2020 by tailoring new housing to the needs of city economies, based on accurate assessments of local housing markets.
Source: Kenneth Gibb, Tony O'Sullivan and Catherine Glossop, Home Economics: How housing shapes city economies, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300)
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Jul
The government began consultation on proposals to give local councils more scope to block large out-of-town developments that threatened the survival of high streets and small shops.
Source: Proposed Changes to Planning Policy Statement 6: Planning for Town Centres – Consultation, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | DCLG press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Liberal Democrats press release
Date: 2008-Jul
An article examined the role of faith groups in urban governance. It contrasted the different perspectives of national policy makers, local stakeholders, and faith actors themselves.
Source: Adam Dinham and Vivien Lowndes, 'Religion, resources, and representation: three narratives of faith engagement in British urban governance', Urban Affairs Review, Volume 43 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that the particular reinvestment needs of the New Towns remained as great as when a predecessor Committee had conducted an inquiry in 2002. There was a need for an analysis which could deliver clear lessons for the 'eco-towns' programme, for the 'growth areas', and for future development to meet the increasing housing needs in England.
Source: New Towns: Follow-up, Ninth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 889, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Liberal Democrats press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Jul
The opposition Conservative Party published a five-point programme aimed at tackling social divisions between rich and poor in cities. It included help to get young people out of gangs and into work and training; job placements for young people aged 18-21 in areas affected by gang crime; specialist welfare-to-work programmes in the poorest neighbourhoods; improving education in divided communities; and better support for community groups working in deprived areas.
Source: Uniting Britain's Divided Cities, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Conservative Party press release | CPAG press release | NCH press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Jul
A league table of the productivity of different cities revealed wide and growing disparities between 'resurgent' cities and those that appeared to be 'stuck' – regardless of regional location.
Source: Alexandra Jones, Neil Lee, Laura Williams, Naomi Clayton and Katy Morris, How Can Cities Thrive in the Changing Economy?, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2008-Jul
A think-tank report said that the government would struggle to meet its aim of an 80 per cent national employment rate unless it granted cities greater freedom to get the workless into jobs. Although England's cities contained 59 per cent of the country's population, they were home to 68 per cent of those claiming benefits – and 64 per cent of the workless.
Source: Dave Simmonds and Paul Bivand, Worklessness: A city approach, Centre for Cities (020 7803 4300) and Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion
Links: Report | Centre for Cities press release
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined New Labour's approach to the governance of urban regeneration, characterized by a more determined effort to empower local community groups within the policy process.
Source: Ian Bache and Philip Catney, 'Embryonic associationalism: New Labour and urban governance', Public Administration, Volume 86 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jun
A think-tank report examined the growing trend towards collaboration between cities. There was a strong theoretical case for cities to work with one another and with other organizations on some economic development issues: but goals needed to be firmly set, priorities managed, and the right leadership structures put in place. Fruitless competition between neighbours wasted resources – but so too did poorly planned collaboration.
Source: Alexandra Jones and Katy Morris, Can Collaboration Help Places Respond to the Changing Economy? A review of how collaboration between local authorities can contribute to the growth of knowledge intensive employment, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-May
A new book examined policing, crime control, and community safety policies in the context of urban restructuring in old-industrial cities, drawing on a study of the making and remaking of urban spaces in the city of Glasgow (Scotland).
Source: Gesa Helms, Towards Safe City Centres? Remaking the spaces of an old-industrial city, Ashgate Publications (01235 827730)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-May
A new book provided a systematic guide to urban regeneration. Key themes included: governance; sustainability; competition; and design.
Source: Phil Jones and James Evans, Urban Regeneration in the UK: Theory and practice, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2008-May
An article examined whether the government's emerging spatial policy would help to strengthen and sustain the urban revival. There had been a significant improvement in urban economic conditions in recent years: but the short-term outlook was less favourable. Although the government had taken some useful steps towards a more effective policy for cities, there was further to go. There were also important dilemmas to be addressed that went beyond a simple spatial 'fix'.
Source: Ivan Turok, 'A new policy for Britain's cities: choices, challenges, contradictions', Local Economy, Volume 23 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
An article said that, in order to move towards full employment, cities needed local government to have more powers over the processes that drove economic competitiveness and social cohesion. These needs were reflected in the United Kingdom government's agenda for cities, employment, and skills governance: but the UK also needed to learn directly from best practice in other countries.
Source: 'The United Kingdom: boosting the role of cities in workforce development', OECD Employment, Volume 2008 Number 4 Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
An article said that despite comparatively well-organized community interests, the local state and its approach to urban development were still the determining key factors in understanding built environment outcomes. Yet the local state was heavily constrained in its actions by: its cultures and practices; its financial and intellectual resources; a highly centralized governance context; and a pervasive discourse of neo-liberalism.
Source: Sara Gonzalez and Geoff Vigar, 'Community influence and the contemporary local state: potentials and contradictions in the neo-liberal city', City, Volume 12 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A report examined the importance of transport investment to maintaining and improving the economic competitiveness of city regions.
Source: Connecting for Competitiveness: The future of transport in the UK city regions, Grant Thornton (020 7383 5100)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Apr
A new book examined how developers, designers, and planners needed to look at ways that cities could be created to work in harmony with the natural world. It highlighted the health and environmental benefits of linking humans to nature, including walk-to open spaces, neighbourhood stormwater systems and waste treatment, and food production.
Source: Douglas Farr (ed.), Sustainable Urbanism: Urban design with nature, Wiley (01243 779777)
Links: Summary | EST press release
Date: 2008-Feb