Summary of the impact

The European Institute for Urban Affairs' (EIUA) evidence, analyses and advocacy have shaped urban policies and decisively influenced policy makers in its city region, the UK and Europe. In recent years its major reports for government, the European Commission, Core Cities and the ESRC which demonstrate the crucial contribution of cities to the UK's national economic performance and welfare have had important policy impacts which are summarised in section 4. The Institute's work has driven the debate about the role and prospects of English cities and had a transformational effect on the way in which they are regarded and treated by government. In doing so the Institute has placed cities at the heart of economic policy making in the UK.

Underpinning research

The Institute's work at international, national and local level has underlined persistent themes: the value of cities, their contribution to national economic competitiveness and the potential of the regeneration of declining cities to increase their national economic contribution in future. Its work has ensured that these themes have entered the language of policy makers and influenced the development of new policy initiatives, nationally and internationally. This is evidenced in five major pieces of work which have advanced these themes and shaped the development of policy during the past decade.

Our research projects have been led by the Director Professor Michael Parkinson, Professors Richard Evans and Richard Meegan, but have involved Gerwyn Jones (Senior Research Fellow) and Jay Karecha (Research Fellow).

2.1. State of English Cities ODPM 2006
This work for the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment was the largest review of city performance and policy ever undertaken by the UK government. The Institute led over 50 researchers from 9 research organisations which involved: creating a new national extensive database of urban performance with 64 quantitative indicators over 3 decades for 56 Primary Urban Areas covering 58% of the English population; assessing the impact of a range of national urban policies; identifying good practice studies of a range of UK cities; and comparative quantitative analysis of European cities. The report [1] identified the impact of national policies upon cities and the need for continued government investment and leadership, learning from success abroad to rebalance the UK economy. It has also shaped subsequent Government policy (see section 4).

2.2. COMPETE European Commission 2007
We initiated and led the COMPETE network a three year programme funded by UK government and the European Commission for the exchange of policies and practices between the UK's eight Core Cities and seven leading successful second tier cities across Europe. We helped over 100 policy makers from those cities to work together to develop new ways of addressing common problems, such as developing resilient and effective public private partnerships, in particular the triple helix model and devolving more decision making to cities. Government accepted and agreed to develop the key policy messages (see section 4) [2].

2.3. Credit Crunch Communities and Local Government (CLG) and Northern Way 2009-10
The impact of the credit crunch upon urban areas and regeneration in the UK was assessed in two reports [3,4]. The first, commissioned by CLG Minister John Healey in 2009, demonstrated the risks to previous investment, people and places and identified ways in which government could and should save many regeneration projects. The second, conducted for the Northern Way in 2010, updated the analysis and showed that the recession was hitting northern towns and cities particularly hard. It highlighted that larger cities were faring better than smaller and more peripheral towns in addition to innovative ways of ensuring continuation of regeneration projects. These reports have influenced Government investment decisions (see section 4).

2.4. Second Tier Cities European Commission 2012
The economic performance and prospects of 155 cities in 31 European countries during the recession were assessed in a major report [5]. It developed a major European quantitative data base and analyses of 9 major cities thus identifying the need for policy changes in the UK. It provided major new quantitative evidence that deconcentration of investment and decentralisation of decision making leads to reduced regional inequality and improved national economic performance. This report has shaped the evolution of the UK City Deals initiative (see section 4).

References to the research

• `This independent report to government fulfils our commitment to publish a detailed update on the urban renaissance. It provides an analysis — unprecedented in its scope and detail — of how our cities stand and how they could improve. It offers detailed ideas for change to which the Government will respond.' John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister.

• `A landmark in the development of urban policy in the UK`. Sir Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary, Office Deputy Prime Minister.

• `A monumental piece of work'. Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

• `Magisterial — the definitive work on this contested topic for years to come'. Professor Sir Peter Hall, University College, London.

• `without the evidence base our work would be much weaker.' Miatta Fahnbulleh, Head of Cities Policy Unit, Deputy Prime Minister's Office.

• `a ground-breaking and pioneering piece of work. The challenge now is to make good use of the excellent work done through the COMPETE project so our cities are in better shape to compete on the world stage. There is a huge amount to be gained from maintaining contacts and continuing to learn from each other.' John Healey, ex-Minister for Local Government.

• `this report is crucial in shaping future policies of cities and city regions and provides the opportunity to influence policy decisions with senior officials from local and central government, the EU commission, the Universities, other European cities, the media, think tanks and research institutions.' Sir Robert Kerslake, former Chief Executive Sheffield City Council and current Head UK Civil Service.

• `Really good analysis.' Will Hutton, Principal, Hertford College Oxford.

• `Very timely.' Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of NESTA.

• `Very interesting.' Sir Michael Lyons, former Chair, BBC Trust.

• `Splendid.' Robert Hough, Chair, Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership.

• `The clearest analysis of the financial crisis I have read.' Mike Parker, Chair, Liverpool Vision.

• `Excellent. Crisp, incisive and very readable.' Professor Tony Champion, University of Newcastle

• `This report arrives at a decisive moment for the European and domestic economies. It eloquently describes the critical economic role and potential of second tier cities, backed up by a compelling and robust evidence base, yet its central message is in one sense quite simple with a vision of empowered places, more able to act in their nation's economic interests. Put simply, this is game-changing material, and it is in everyone's interests to now act upon it.' Chris Murray, Chief Executive Core Cities.

• `This is really excellent work and breaks new ground. I am convinced it will make a big impact on the debate. I am very impressed by the impact it has already had in the UK.' Lewis Dijkstra, European Commission.

Resources achieved
The Institute has been the grant holder for the following projects. Professor Michael Parkinson was the principal investigator in all of these projects

Date	Title	Source	Amount (£)
02/2010 – 02/2013	Secondary Growth Poles in Territorial Development	ESPON 2013-5 Programme	500,000
08/2009 – 01/2010	Investigation into regeneration sector’s response to the credit crunch and recession	The Northern Way’s Regeneration Momentum Programme	40,000
05/2008 – 01/2009	A study into the impact of the Credit Crunch	Department of Communities and Local Government	60,000
04/2004 – 03/2006	State of the Cities	Office of the Deputy Prime Minister	556,000
10/2004 – 09/2007	Interreg IIIC COMPETE Network	European Commission	30,000

Details of the impact

The Institute has had a good impact upon, and brought a range of benefits to, the wider community by influencing government policy, stimulating debate with research evidence, improving public understanding of urban issues and challenging some of the conventional wisdom about cities.

EIUA has achieved impact by bridging the worlds of research and decision makers and influencers; setting national and local policy agendas; making its work publicly accessible through conferences and the media nationally and internationally; promoting good practice at local, national and European level. Owing to the quality of our research, our Director was appointed member of the Ministerial Urban Sounding Board designed to give personal, policy advice to the Minister for Local Government in the period 2004-7. He was also invited to lead the government's network of research advisers on cities for the Department of Communities and Local Government between 2007-10. Both drew on academics and consultants to provide independent evidence and analysis of key issues for government urban policy about urban economic competitiveness, social exclusion and successful governance. In both instances this enabled EIUA research findings to influence the development of government policy in those and following years and led to sustained investment in the kinds of integrated urban regeneration programmes advocated by us. Our Director was also appointed Specialist Adviser in 2012 to the House of Commons Select Committee which inquired into the UK government's policies for regeneration and shaped the well-received but challenging critique of its regeneration policies arguing the need to go beyond ad hoc localism to a more strategic approach to regeneration.

The State of English cities report was the basis for much of the urban policy that emerged from government in the second part of the decade such as Local Strategic Partnerships, Local and Multi-Area Agreements and City Regional Pilots and the new emphasis on place quality. It remains the authoritative guide to the performance of UK cities and is widely cited and used by academics and policymakers. It produced a novel, more accurate way of defining towns and cities' spatial extent — primary urban areas (PUAs) — which has since been widely used. (e.g. in the Centre for Cities think tank's many publications).

The Compete research encouraged the government to view cities as vital sources of national economic competitiveness, highlighted the importance of involving higher education institutions in urban growth policies and facilitated greater networking between English and European cities.

The two credit crunch reports generated extensive debate amongst policy makers and parliamentarians and received widespread publicity in national conferences and the quality press including the Financial Times which focused the public debate about the future of urban regeneration in this country. Both reports argued for continued investment as a requirement to secure previous investment which the then Government accepted and took on board. This led to instances where the Government, via for example the Homes and Communities Agency, injected further investment to sustain stalled urban regeneration schemes in 2009 and 2010. The CLG report in particular has been highly cited by academics and policymakers.

The main arguments of our Second Tier Cities in Europe' report about decentralisation in decision making and deconcentration of public investment have already been reproduced in a series of policy oriented reports by national and international think tanks. The recent 5th Cohesion Report of the European Commission published in 2010 drew upon its evidence and analysis about the performance of cities in Europe. Drawing upon its second tier cities research, the Institute did analytical work during 2011 for the Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Office which underpins the current government's new urban programme `Unlocking Growth in Cities'. Both the Cabinet Office and Core Cities group have agreed that our `Second Tier Cities in Europe' report directly influenced the principles and policies of the current government through the City Deals initiative launched in December 2011 and extended in February 2013. These involve a major shift in national policy with greater delegation of powers to local government and new models of public sector investment. They apply to 28 major English cities — the twenty two largest and the six most rapidly growing with a combined population of about 18m. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in their official response to the Heseltine Review accepted many of his recommendations, specifically arguing that the evidence in the Institute's Second Tier Cities report demonstrated that such policies had allowed many European countries to become more competitive than the UK.

We believe that the influence and impact of our work is demonstrated by the reception it has received from senior figures in the policy making and research community and the way in which its arguments, evidence and analysis have influenced policy decisions by those key figures.

Sources to corroborate the impact

1. MP, House of Lords, can confirm the report related to the State of English Cities, Volume 1 and 2.
2. Head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government can confirm the COMPETE Project: Messages for Competitive European Cities.
3. Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Minister for Cities policy, House of Commons can confirm the State of English Cities Report, Volume I and 2.
4. Deputy Head of the Analysis Unit in the Directorate-General for Regional Policy of the European Commission, European Commission can confirm our ESPON Project: Second Tier Cities and Territorial Development in Europe: Performance, Policies and Prospects.
5. Director, Core Cities Group, can confirm our ESPON Project: Second Tier Cities and Territorial Development in Europe: Performance, Policies and Prospects.
6. Unlocking growth in cities HM Government December 2011.
   https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7523/CO_Unlocking_20GrowthCities_acc.pdf
7. Government's response to the Heseltine Review HM Treasury. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Cm8587. March 2013.
8. Investing in Europe's Future. Fifth report on economic, social and territorial cohesion. European Commission. November 2010.