Over the last year I have travelled around England’s greatest cities talking to more than sixty five business and voluntary sector leaders, local authority chief executives, journalists and councillors. The picture of city governance I have bought back is decidedly mixed; ranging from ambitious and strategic leadership to chaos and stagnation. Everywhere there was...

First he in effect called for a “devolution max” offer to be made to Scotland, and then for a straight “in or out” referendum to be held upon it.  By “devolution max”, Major includes full fiscal responsibility and pretty well all law making powers, except in respect of defence and foreign policy. He clearly...

Without much national fanfare, Leicester will tomorrow become the largest city in England outside London to elect a mayor to run its affairs. In doing so, it could pave the way for Birmingham and other major cities outside the capital to follow suit in short order.

Manchester boasts the greatest concentration of students west of Moscow.

The Full Monty, the 1997 comic hit about a group of unemployed Sheffield steelworkers, leaves outsiders with three misleading long-term impressions about the city – that steelmaking died; that low value jobs were the only replacement; and that the better-off largely fled the city.

Leeds has more councillors over the age of 80 than under the age of 35. Not that it is short of councillors.  It has 99 in all, only one member fewer than the Senate of the United States.

Of all the cities I have visited so far, Newcastle is the least enthusiastic about reforming its system of government. Labour and the Lib Dems dominate the city council and I could not identify a single councillor or MP from either party in favour of the mayoral proposition.

Liverpool, the immensely wealthy “second city of the Empire,” has more Georgian buildings than Bath. Some of its historic grandeur has revived with the successful regeneration of the dockside and city centre, and the dysfunctional Derek Hatton Eighties are ancient history.

A million people, an annual budget of £4bn – yet an unemployment rate of 10 per cent and among the highest concentrations of poverty in the country.

Bristol City Council has had seven changes of leader in eight years.  Yet another change of leader could be in the offing after next May’s elections.