EUKN - United Kingdom - State of the cities: a progress report to the delivering sustainable communities summit

State of the cities: a progress report to the delivering sustainable communities summit

Introduction

A review of English cities, intended to provide an assessment of urban conditions and drivers of urban change: it evaluates how policies contribute to local, regional and national success, as defined in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

Description

Assesses the state of England’s cities in terms of:

social cohesion;
economic competitiveness and performance;
liveability;
and the impacts of policy on urban governance and performance.

Background information

In 2000, in the Urban White Paper, the UK Government committed itself to an urban renaissance and in 2003 set out a wider programme – the £38 billion Sustainable Communities Plan. In order to improve cities, the Government felt it needed to understand them as fully as possible and therefore, in 2004, it commissioned a team of leading academics and policy experts to conduct the State of the Cities project.

Methodology

The project is being undertaken by a consortium of researchers, led by the European Institute of Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University. It involves: a literature review, case studies, interviews with national and regional policymakers, a review of international experience, analysis of public attitudes to cities and secondary data on economic, social and environmental performance using a range of indicators for 56 large urban areas, compiled in a State of the Cities Database (SOCD).

Conclusions

Reports progress on the early work of the review rather than presenting conclusions or recommendations. Identifies some early findings:

cities are growing in confidence, and public and political perceptions of cities are changing;
regional location and size are highly significant;
larger places tend to be least prosperous, apart from London;
narrowing the economic differential between north and south is important;
and a well trained workforce and modern competitive industry are important.

Contact info

European Institute of Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University
Professor Michael Parkinson, tel. +44 151 231 5163

Publication date

01/02/2005

Project finished

Researcher

Parkinson, Michael et al

Article info
ISBN: 1851127690

Links

European Institute of Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University

State of the cities (PDF, Eng, 915 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords