We publish our a new report into investment opportunities in our cities
With the Budget due later this week, economic growth will once again be front and centre of the political debate. At the core of the Treasury’s pitch will be the need to secure the public finances which reduces the room for manoeuvre and will mean we are likely to see a long “scorecard” with a package of measures that will hopefully have a cumulative impact in driving growth and reducing the deficit.
At Core Cities UK we look forward to hearing from the Chancellor. One rumoured change that we would welcome and that we have been calling for would be the introduction of a visitor levy in England. This would allow our cities to follow the examples being set in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff in generating revenue from the visitors that our cities attract.
The implementation of this measure would be crucial in ensuring that the revenue raised can be reinvested in delivering the infrastructure and services needed to create and maintain world class visitor destinations in our cities.
But, given the fiscal constraints, the real focus for Core Cities has been on practical mechanisms to accelerate investment and delivery across our cities with the levers that have already been announced in the Spending Review.
As we have long argued, we will only realise the growth potential of our major cities through sustained investment across multiple assets and need to balance public and private finance to achieve that growth.
It is why we were proud to work with Localis and CIPFA on the recent “Ride the Wave” report that surveyed the landscape and reflected on what we can learn from approaches elsewhere. It is why we have been working with Lloyds and Metro Dynamics on a playbook that provides a tool to practitioners on constructing investment models.
And why we recently submitted analysis and examples to Government on steps we can take together to unlock investment in commercial property, housing and wider infrastructure in each and every one of our cities. We publish the summary of that advice here and would welcome further discussions with any who are interested in working in partnership with us.
Stephen Jones, Director, Core Cities UK
November 2025
One rumoured change that we would welcome and that we have been calling for would be the introduction of a visitor levy in England.
Stephen Jones, Director, Core Cities UK