The Future of Cities

I was pleased to be amongst those invited to a discussion on the Future of Cities in Glasgow on Friday 14 March, run by the Government Office for Science, and chaired by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, and Sir Alan Wilson, Professor of Urban and Regional Systems at University College London and Chair of the Future of Cities Lead Expert Group.

The project to which this discussion is linked is found here, and begins with the following statement.

Cities are centres of innovation and growth and emerge from the demand for populations to interact. The Office for National Statistics calculates that almost 80% of the UK population already live in urban areas. There is no single definition of cities in the UK and many government statistics rely on city boundaries that are not representative of the true extent of our urban communities.

The Foresight project, the Future of Cities, will take a long-term look at how UK cities can best contribute to economic growth over the coming decades, taking into consideration wellbeing, equity and social inclusion which are all vitally important for cities and their citizens.

Cities compete with each other to attract private finance and investment and the project will consider the opportunities for UK cities within a national and global ‘system of cities’. It will also assess future challenges to UK cities, many of which will be common to other countries, including ensuring resilience to increasing threats due to climate change.

Amongst many items of discussion, the meeting considered the future of Glasgow, taking 2040 and 2065 as staging points for scenario planning.