Urban policies and programmes have been an enduring feature of UK Government for over thirty years, yet they have had mixed successes when it comes to leading an urban renaissance. More recently, in a marked change from traditional regional policies and in the wake of devolution to the UK's non-English territories, the momentum has grown for a more thorough-going regionalisation of decision-making in England. SURF continues to track and inform changes in urban and regional policies, programmes and institutions with the aim of producing work designed to promote more effective solutions.
Of particular concern to SURF are:
- The need to learn from experiences beyond the UK
- The relationship between urban and regional policies
- The role that cities and metropolitan areas increasingly play in the knowledge economy and the success of regions
- The importance of a wide range of Government policies and expenditure choices, beyond specific urban and regional initiatives, in urban and regional development
- The ways in which the competitiveness of cities and regions influence, or can be reconciled with, the aims of social inclusion and sustainable development.
Projects
- County-Regions and Sub-National Governance
- The Strategic Role of Government Offices: From Organisational Translation to Transformation
- City-Regions Shaping Transitions in Critical Infrastructure: A Comparative Review of Relevant and Transferable Lessons from City-regional Frameworks in the UK
- NewcastleGateshead07 - Review of "Economic Masterplan"
- The GONW-SURF Programme. From Information to Intelligence
- Innovation and the Future of the Northern Economy
Events