The future of our cities

Cities are always evolving and the pandemic has had its own impact, creating significant disruption that has made room for a real debate about how we want to shape our cities for the next generation.

Addressing this subject in an Invest Midlands discussion sponsored by Phoenix Group, were panellists Sajeeda Rose, corporate director for growth and city development at Nottingham City Council, Tom Sumpster, head of private markets at Phoenix Group and Anthony Breach, senior analyst at Centre for Cities.

The panel was chaired by Alex Turner, managing director at TheBusinessDesk.com

Panellists broadly agreed that the pandemic had accelerated existing trends in our cities, such as the shift from bricks and mortar retail to online shopping.

Rose spoke of how Nottingham Council had inherited a 1970s shopping centre after Intu real estate investment trust went into administration. She described it as both a challenge and an opportunity to remodel this location around more mixed use developments and high quality public spaces.

“It was a chance for us to rethink our city centre and to turn something that could be a disaster into an opportunity,” she said.

“I don’t think retail is dead but it is different. Cities are at the heart of reviving our regional economies.”

She said Nottingham aims to be progressive in other ways too, as the council wants it to be the first European city to reach Net Zero by 2028.

The city is trialling an e-scooter scheme and has plans to decarbonise its public transport network and social housing stock.

Sumpster said his own business, Phoenix Group, is looking to invest £40bn to £50bn for the long-term across the UK over the next few years and is keen to support cities with a shared vision of what they want to achieve.

“That is exciting for investors like us, when we’re allowed to get in early and understand what the 10 to 15 year vision is for that city,” he added. “The public purse can only go so far.

“Sitting here in London I’ve been as guilty as anyone else of not taking the rest of the country seriously enough, so we need to invest and level up sooner rather than later.

“And when we make investments we look at social value just as much as we look at economic value.”

Breach said he thinks of cities as labour markets and noted urban economies have become increasingly important to the overall health of the national economy.

“Even if you have more flexible working and working from home, there’s still going to be a role for face-to-face interaction,” he said. “That supports innovation, skills acquisition and career progression and the best place for it to happen is in city centres.”

He pointed out that in 2020 the Government had begun reforming the commercial use class system for buildings, which will make it easier for cities to adapt property space in their centres.

Commenting on the Net Zero agenda, he said cities have a key role to play, because by increasing density of buildings they can reduce reliance on cars and make it easier for people to move around by walking or using public transport.