Very nice piece on the evidence on getting a university degree in the UK by @amyborrett.ft.com www.ft.com/content/3df3...

I've written in The MJ with Patrick Diamond about London devolution. Stronger governance and more fiscal autonomy are important enablers to get London motoring, alongside more muscle to build infrastructure and homes: www.themj.co.uk/stronger-dev...

Branch campuses are popping up in university 'coldspots'. Would attracting one in be a good way to achieve local growth? Possibly. Though often these outposts only pop up in places already with an offer - specific strengths in their local economy. Worth investing in these first. 👇

Happy that our work on universities is the basis for a thoughtful Guardian editorial on the state of the sector. In economic terms, 'universities are not ivory towers'. Reforms to the sector are a part the mission to deliver growth across the country - it is up to Government to recognise that.

NEW on Wonkhe: Regulatory and financial incentives are harming growth. James Coe sets out why it's time to reform them. buff.ly/fPVFJ8y

There is plenty to like about this pledge to help universities diversify income. But it really doesn't tackle the wider issues they face, or recognise their primary local roles in their home cities. My blog on last week's announcement 👇

See also: balancing objectives between immigration policy and ambitions to deliver growth everywhere. E.g. Look at all the cities more reliant on unis for international exports (i.e. overseas fees and local spending) than Oxford. Place-based impact cannot be ignored

This article is an excellent write up of our work on universities and their economic role in UK cities. A balanced account on what they can (and can't) do in local economies, and a recognition that any reforms to the sector must take place into consideration.

Good briefing. As I always say, in England's poorest region - the north east - there are three times as many jobs in higher education than there are in the manufacture of motor vehicles.

An important point from @centreforcities.bsky.social on the uneven impact of the university crisis. While bigger universities matter for the national impact, the local economic impact will be bigger where smaller universities dominate their local economy www.centreforcities.org/publication/...

Our new briefing is about the role of universities in their local economies. The short version is - places don't need a university to be prosperous, but where cities have them they are sizable chunk of the local knowledge economy.

It's not just Oxbridge that are 'university towns' - they are a big presence in many other cities, often with struggling economies. So @xuanrulin.bsky.social and I wanted to investigate the economic roles these institutions play in their cities, and what this might mean for national HE policy. 👇

Why? Unis are big international exporters in their cities - they bring in overseas student fees and spending. 9 of top 10 English cities where universities are most important for exports are outside the Greater South East. Leicester will feel this far more than Oxford.

This is the one chart you need to understand why free museums - a national policy - should have nothing to do with the ability for mayors to raise, collect, and spend taxes locally based on their local visitor economy. Local levers should not support national policy! Read the blog below 👇

Me on why city regions should carry on pushing for powers to tax tourists - it's not about the tourists themselves! A local, flexible, and fully retained tax could demonstrate the growth principles of fiscal devolution in microcosm - for city regions, this is an opportunity to not pass up 👇

New blog: what are the recent calls for tourist taxes really about? I argue it's less about city regions having more control over their visitor economy, and more because mayors recognise (or should recognise) that tourist taxes could be the open door toward greater fiscal devolution.

Great summary of an incredibly thorough and well researched report on how the English planning system lags behind international best practice. Interesting that (inevitably) hampered capacity and weak incentives in local govt are a big barrier to improvement, so bolder, joined-up reforms needed 👇

New project! @yufeng.bsky.social analyzed all of the words found on NYC Streets. The data comes from from 8 million Google Street View images, which yielded 138 million snippets of text: 🔗: pudding.cool/2025/07/stre...

In another sense - yes. Manchester has undergone rapid 'London-ification' in terms of the geography of it's income. Manchester's city centre was among its poorest areas in 2011, now one of it's richest. From my blog on the geography of UK household incomes: www.centreforcities.org/blog/geograp...

Super interesting! Authors suggest 1881 industry concentration explains 40% of the North/South productivity gap today 👀 Wasn't thinking *this* long term when I wrote about dangers of one-horse towns. But clear: going all in one 'leading' sector today (e.g. Reading) may not bode well for the future

Most discussion on 'how to save the high street' doesn't take a serious approach to what actually determines its performance in city centres. Our new report (I think) provides the most comprehensive account yet. And it starts with the fact that: the high street is not in decline everywhere. 🧵👇

"A struggling high street is the outcome of a struggling economy" - this seems right, though under-emphasises just how structural these forces are. The UK is an ageing society with changing consumption behaviours and a sclerotic economy. Many high streets are doing well just to survive.

In transport, perhaps the single biggest positive of the spending review is it gives areas the long-term funding certainty they need to focus on delivery - making every £ go further. Several years of transport investment being fairly allocated via a needs-based grant is a significant win.

NB all the mayors want a visitor levy, that’s not just a London thing - they collectively issued another letter on this last week, led by Liverpool’s Steve Rotheram

Yes, and the *only* way a London tourist tax will work is to give the Mayor the power directly. Manchester and Liverpool tourist taxes are run by BIDs, who just ballot members and roll it out. But …

Big announcements by the chancellor. Right to focus on connecting up people to opportunities in the UK's underperforming secondary cities. And shows the power of directly elected mayors in these places being given the responsibilities to deliver these.

Big news for city region region transport today - lots of investment to build out their networks. www.ft.com/content/9e2d... Welcome recognition by government that city region growth is the way to get get broad based national growth. And that metro mayors are the key institution to deliver it.

As they should - destinations should be able to cover the costs of having a visitor economy. But rates should be different between Manchester/Liverpool (visitor destinations) and Birmingham/Leeds (less visited). And this will not be a big revenue-raiser (particularly for the latter two).

I’ve seen it again today, so here goes: this chart, and the research note it comes from, is extremely silly and misleading. It purports to show a drop in electricity availability in Britain coinciding with the productivity slowdown. It shows nothing of the sort…

Earlier this week IMF recommended OBR should only assess fiscal rules once a year to reduce pressure for policy action. But I don't think that will be enough... The benefits of having only one OBR forecast a year increasingly outweigh the costs www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/imf-...

I look at post-war new towns as cities where the the centre of the economy and the city centre are two different places. Warrington is a good case study of i) the challenges and ii) implications for local prosperity for this type of place. Summarised in a fly-through map here - and quick 🧵 below

BtR is now an important part of housing growth in large cities, where private developers have struggled to keep up. Want to see where it’s happening across the UK and how it’s helping deliver new homes? Check out our latest briefing⬇️ or explore the highlights in the 🧵

Shows how MK is the king of urban extensions. In top 3 cities for housing growth over 2010s, with 13% increase in built up area, more than any other UK city (2x more than Cambridge, 6x Oxford). Future challenge: densification (MK's density actually decreased in 2010s due to this development!)

Most interesting part of the report for me. Skills considered the biggest barrier to business in DBT's eyes. So explicit part of the Industrial Strategy. How this squares with 'graduate oversupply' arguments (Stansbury et al) is another question - sector-specific skills a potential bottleneck?

A few months ago the FT suggested the surge in disability benefit claims may not have been driven by an actual rise in illness/disability, having found limited evidence for such a rise since the pandemic Now the IFS has published research suggesting there has been a rise ifs.org.uk/news/various...

Glad to see @pkrugman.bsky.social paying renewed attention to distressed places. He makes some useful points about the economic challenges of distressed places. However, I would add some other points that are crucial for better place-based policies.

BLOG: 'One-horse towns' come up a lot at @centreforcities.bsky.social: cities reliant on one sector. These places should look to diversify their economies. But what if the dominant industry is IT (like Reading) or life sciences (Cambridge)? Aren't these 'key strengths'? Maybe not. Let me explain:🧵

"Societies change their minds faster than people do: Generational replacement is what shifts public opinion" www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

There are 200,000 kids living in poverty in the North East - 40% of all children in the area. @kimmcguinness.bsky.social has pledged to tackle this. But what is the role of charitable giving, and how can the mayor best work with the voluntary sector to achieve her mission? We looked at the data 🧵

When I worked in UK academia I recall hearing of a Japanese man who was baffled at how Britain had decided to run its universities like firms. “Why? Your universities are excellent and your firms are terrible.”

Mayors have missions for their areas, whether tackling child poverty on the North East or youth unemployment in the West Mids. How could they best use the voluntary sector to achieve these? We've written these briefings, using survey data on local giving patterns, to explain how 👇

The Government is very close to being able to introduce a flexible zoning system - see our briefing published yesterday to see how:

Thinking about skill level in UK cities must distinguish moves to raise the skill floor (-> participation) & skill ceiling (-> productivity). This blog by @annathew.bsky.social : - sets this out using Cities Outlook data. - includes interactive mushrooms! www.centreforcities.org/blog/how-do-...

Ok, quick thread on why DeepSeek is blowing up assumptions about LLMs and maybe the whole (U.S.) AI industry. DeepSeek is an AI lab funded by a Chinese hedge fund, their AI code is open source, meaning freely available to use, which most big U.S. models (aside from Meta’s) are not. That’s the start…

My former workplace @centreforcities.bsky.social have published the historical local housebuilding data (1946-2022) underpinning their latest reports. A fantastic resource for researchers. Grateful I got to work on this during my time there github.com/CentreforCit...

New evidence that reducing cars is good for business: In London, retail spending was stronger after neighborhoods were added to the Urban Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). Spending was also higher than in areas nearby but outside the ULEZ. www.centreforcities.org/blog/ulez-ex...

Manchester breaks 1 million private sector jobs in the latest @centreforcities.bsky.social Cities Outlook. 20% more than Birmingham, despite having the same population.

Colleagues and I have pulled together together 17 indicators of UK city economic performance so you don't have to! 10 categories, time series data, top/bottom/geographic comparisons... One stark example: tool can compare city real wage growth 97-08 with wage stagnation/decline 08-24. Play around!

Hammering this point home talking about the health of city high streets on BBC CWR this morning. Cities with bigger tradeable bases have more spending on restaurants / pubs. Even clearer when ignoring cities caught in London's gravity (Reading / Slough etc) More tradeables = thriving city centres!

Faster UK growth tied to boosting export services in South East, data shows — great @amyborrett.bsky.social charts you can play with here. Given importance of exporting to productivity, begs question why growth-focussed govt doing so little on trade side of EU reset. on.ft.com/4jqFbKX