City Minutes: The Croydon planning experiment

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Analyst Maurice Lange as well as Alison Coutinho (Mace Consult) and Guy Rochez (Town) who both worked for Croydon council between 2019 and 2022 when they were designing and implementing a new planning strategy to build more homes in the borough. Building off our recent research into the experiment, Croydon calling: Lessons on rules-based planning, they discuss what made the experiment successful as well as lessons learned.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by External Affairs and Policy Manager Caitlin Rollison and Intern Zoe Johnson to discuss the findings of our latest briefing ‘Around the world: How do visitor levies work in other countries?'. As the Government looks to enable mayors to introduce visitor levies in England they dive into examples drawn from a range of countries and cities across the globe that have already implemented a levy.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Alex Trew, Professor of Economics at the Adam Smith Business School at Glasgow University and David Nagy, Senior Researcher at CREI in Barcelona. As two of the four authors of the paper The Death and Life of Great British Cities they discuss how the specialisation and diversification of industries shapes cities.

Centre for Cities’ Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Will Jennings, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy as well as Dean for the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton to discuss his latest paper Perspectives on Place: what the English think about their local area. Coming shortly after the publication of Cities Outlook 2026, which examined variation in disposable incomes and levels of deprivation across the country, the discussion delves into peoples pride in their places and what this can mean for boosting growth.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Rob Johnson, Senior Analyst, to discuss the findings of Cities Outlook 2026, our annual health check of the economic performance of urban Britain. They discuss the cities that have managed to buck the national trend to improve the quality of life in their place and the three elements that are key to creating economic growth that is felt by everyone and has a real impact on living standards.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Analyst Maurice Lange to talk about the urban density gap following the publication of our recent report ‘Flat Britain: The urban density gap and how to close it'. They discuss the housing shortage in the UK, the importance of cities in tackling that shortage and they look to other cities in the world that are achieving the kind of density we need in their big cities.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by External Affairs and Policy Manager Caitlin Rollison to discuss Scottish devolution from a city region perspective following the publication of our recent briefing ‘Let devolution flourish: How Glasgow spreads prosperity and why the City Region needs devolution‘. They set out how the agenda has progressed recently and why Glasgow City Region needs a devolution deal as well as a directly elected mayor. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Researcher Oscar Selby to discuss the findings of our latest briefing 'Follow the money: Explaining the performance of London’s suburban high streets'. They explore why its useful to take a closer look at London's suburban high streets to better understand the wider conversation on the economic performance of the UK's high streets and city centres.

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Analyst Rob Johnson and External Affairs and Policy Manager Caitlin Rollison to discuss the findings of our latest report 'Integrated transport: The size of the prize for mayors'. They dive into the economic benefits of better transport systems for big city regions and the size of the prize for the metro mayors. 

Chief Executive Andrew Carter is joined by Yunze Wang, Analyst, to discuss the findings of our latest briefing 'How productive are the UK’s big cities?'. They dive into what the latest data ONS tells us about big city performance and some of the potential inconsistencies that arise.