Tony Travers is Director of the Institute of Public Affairs at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). He is also a professor in the LSE’s Government Department and co-director of LSE London. His research interests include public finance, urban politics and London government.
Tony has been an adviser to a number of UK parliamentary committees. He was also a Senior Associate of The Kings Fund from 1999–2004 and was a member of the Arts Council’s Touring Panel during the late 1990s. From 1992–97, he was a member of the Audit Commission. He was also a member of the Urban Task Force Working Group on Finance.
He is a research board member of the Centre for Cities and a board member of the New Local Government Network. He is an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy. He chaired the London Finance Commission (2012–13 and again in 2016–17) and was a member of the City Growth Commission (2013–14).
He recently chaired an independent commission examining local government finance in Wales.
Tony has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis), Paying for Health, Education and Housing: How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) and The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City. Most recently, he published London’s Boroughs at 50.
