City Minutes: Reflections on the Spending Review

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Victoria Sutherland, Deputy Director of Evidence at the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth to discuss their recent rapid evidence review on Enterprise Zones. The need for an evidence-backed approach is all the more relevant as Government's new Industrial Strategy puts a 'zone' approach at the centre of its plan for growth with Investment Zones and Freeports becoming Industrial Strategy Zones and new AI Growth Zones being announced. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, for the Centre for Cities’ first reflections on today’s Industrial Strategy. They run through the documents pros and cons including what it means for the big city regions that sit at the heart of the plan as well as the elected mayors that represent them.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Jake Nunley, City Specialist, and James Child, Head of Research, for ING Media, strategic communications specialists for the built world. They discuss city branding, how it's changing in a digital world and the implications of these changes for what cities do and should be doing. They also draw on findings from ING's flagship reports 'Most Talked About Cities' which look not at what cities say about themselves but what the world is saying about them.   

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, for the Centre for Cities' first reflections on today's Spending Review. They run through the key statements on economic growth and what they mean for cities including announcements on local public transport, industrial strategy, social housebuilding, local government finance, London investment and the Green Book. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Arjan Schakel, Research Professor at the University of Bergen and expert on regional governance and territorial politics. They discuss Arjan's work on the Regional Authority Index, which measures the authority in self rule and shared rule exercised by regional governments, in order to get a sense of how regional level authority and autonomy differ across countries.  

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Ant Breach, Associate Director, to discuss our latest report Breaking the Bottlenecks: Reforming ‘anti-supply measures’ to support urban housebuilding. They dive in to each of the five anti-supply measures we identified that should be reviewed by national Government and in the new version of London Plan as well as the moderate and bold reforms we propose for each measure to help cities play their role in meeting the 1.5m housebuilding target. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Director of Policy and Research, to discuss the results of last week's local elections and what they mean for growth in the country. They explore the myth of "left behind" places and how government policy should respond to the political discontent signalled by the rise in votes for Reform UK. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Professor Michael Albertus, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. They discuss Michael’s latest book, Land power: who has it, who doesn’t, and how that determines the fate of societies, which tackles how land came to be power within human societies, how it shapes power and how its allocation determines the major social and economic challenges that society has grappled with.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dan Tomlinson, MP for Chipping Barnet since 2024 and the national champion for the Government’s growth mission. They discuss Dan’s background as a councillor and former policy wonk, why he decided to enter the world of politics and his ambitions to help reform the planning system and deliver on the Government’s growth mission.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Dame Kate Barker, a British economist appointed by the Government in 2003 to conduct an independent review of UK Housing Supply which presented recommendations to the UK government for securing future housing needs. Twenty years on from the publication of the Barker report Andrew and Kate reflect on what has changed in housing and planning, what has remained largely unchanged and the lessons that can be learned for the future.