The report describes the existing policy and governance architectures for city-regions. It looks at how government can best understand and respond to the needs of both the UK as a whole, and of different places in the UK, including large and smaller cities. An assessment is made of whether the city-region matters and what it means for the distribution of powers and funding at a national, regional, city-region and local authority level in different cities and towns. The implications for medium-sized cities of the "Ideopolis: knowledge city-regions" report are considered. The authors identify the obstacles to creating more ideopolises, partner ideopolises and other successful cities in Britain.

Following on from the Work Foundation’s previous research into knowledge city-regions, this report considers the policy implications of becoming an Ideopolis and looks at the evidence on the diverse needs of different cities.

The report is based on a synthesis of existing literature, interviews with stakeholders in different cities and it also draws on the Work Foundation’s previous research.

The policy and institutional architecture of English cities needs to better reflect the differing needs of cities in the knowledge economy. Cities operate at the municipal, metropolitan and city-region level and policy-makers need to recognise this and vary the level at which they implement different policies. Relationships with other cities are also important, and all cities should be encouraged to consider their strengths and weaknesses as well as their links with other places. Each large city-region should be given the powers it needs to enhance the process of economic development within its region, based on a business case. Medium-sized cities also matter to the knowledge economy and they should be encouraged to work closely with the core city of their region or, if they are not within a large city-region, they should be given more support to collaborate with city-regions or with one another.

Department for Communities and Local Government
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