The LGA’s inaugural Urban Summit discussed the future of our cities.
Cities are at the forefront of this century’s global challenges, from tackling climate change to the rise of artificial intelligence and managing the diverse benefits and impacts of migration.
Increasingly, it is clear that these are beyond the reach of national governments alone to solve. As greater numbers of people are choosing to live in urban areas, they are looking to local leaders for solutions to help make our world a safer place.
Cities in the UK are already leading the way, driving our economy, culture, communities and individual people’s sense of belonging.
Through migration, global trade and the sharing of ideas, our cities shape, and are shaped, by international events.
Mayors, civic leaders, think tanks, academics and other public sector leaders gathered in March at the LGA’s inaugural Urban Summit to discuss these, and other, key issues that cities face over the next 30 years.
The Government’s levelling up mission states that we should have a globally competitive city in every area of the country by the end of the decade, but it is up to us as leaders of place to decide what these cities should look like.
Should they compete with each other or share a future in which we all move forward as a coherent collective?
Working out the relationship within and between cities and their surrounding areas, as well as with the national economy, is essential if we are to maximise our chances of being successful.
We also need to address the gap between where our cities are today and where we will need them to be, to help address the stark inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
This approach requires a ‘UK cities 2050’ plan, a 30-year blueprint that delivers on a collective vision of what we need our cities to be.
This will need to include secure and predictable finance, support for devolution and, vitally, national government making the space that cities need to be able to act and deliver for the UK nationally and around the globe.
This could include a ‘sustainable urban futures fund’, a single pot for urban areas to use flexibly, addressing the Government’s levelling up priorities in innovative ways and reducing the reliance on fragmented, short-term funding for single issues.
Such a fund could, instead, be for the next 5-10 years, based on indicators such as deprivation, job loss, unemployment and environmental factors, incentivising match funding from the private sector and contributing towards our economic recovery and growth.
International organisations should also be redirecting much of their energy and finance through our cities, for maximum impact.
The ability of UK cities to grow, adapt and build direct relationships with cities around the world means they are ideally placed to navigate global challenges.
Making urban leaders equal partners in shaping policy, and giving them the powers they need to make the best decisions for their communities, will help us tackle the challenges of our time head-on, with an ambition to unleash opportunity and prosperity for all.
We know levelling up cannot be achieved by any one body. A strategy for UK cities would take us a step forward in delivering this joint endeavour in the decades to come, just as we look ahead to what could be a new and very different global landscape.