This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities provides evidence to support the Government’s decision to advance fiscal devolution. In the 2026 Mais Lecture, the Chancellor announced a roadmap to fiscal devolution, including tax sharing of income tax to regional leaders across England. This briefing provides evidence to support the Government’s decision to advance...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities explores the geography of deprivation in urban Britain. Two-thirds of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK are in cities, even though cities and non-urban areas each account for roughly half of all neighbourhoods. Affluent neighbourhoods, by contrast, are split evenly between urban and non-urban areas.

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities shows that rising National Living Wage rates are having very different effects across UK cities and towns. A single national wage floor, combined with varying economic performance across UK cities, means that the impact of the minimum wage is felt very differently in different places. A...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities looks at where city densification needs to occur and what policy needs to do differently. Policy attention towards densifying British cities is welcome, and this research uses data on historic neighbourhood age and Centre for Cities’ residential densities dataset to dig deeper into where densification needs...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities argues that geographic differences in equity investment reflects differences in the number of investable firms. Equity investment is at the heart of the Industrial Strategy, and it is predominantly urban. Over 80 per cent of equity deals and values are for businesses in cities. A few...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities looks at how cities around the world operate their visitor levies and what England can learn from their experiences. Using examples drawn from a range of countries and cities from major visitor destinations such as Barcelona and Amsterdam to smaller places such as Essen, Germany and...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities looks at the lessons learnt from rules-based planning conducted in Croydon. This briefing analyses data from when the ‘Suburban Design Guide’ (SDG), a successful ‘experiment’ in rules-based planning conducted in Croydon from 2019 to 2022, was in place. It explains the SDG's success in raising housebuilding...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities focuses on the cities that offer lessons for a government looking to raise living standards everywhere. Cities Outlook, our annual health check of the economic performance of urban Britain, offers a deep dive into the latest economic data on how UK cities are performing against a range...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities shows that London's suburban high streets are performing better than the rest of the country. Most of London’s suburbs outperform Brighton, Oxford and York city centres – three of the UK’s top five cities and towns for high street occupancy. High average incomes are the main...

This report from UK think tank Centre for Cities addresses exactly where British cities should increase density and how they can do it. Britain needs more homes – and it needs them in its cities. The housing crisis, inefficient urban transport, and the underperformance of major urban economies all point in the same direction: higher-density urban...