Core Cities
During the immediate response to Covid-19 our cities and their communities stepped up to the plate as never before. Our citizens delivered free school meals, cared for the sick and vulnerable and provided free transport and parking for key workers.
There are hundreds of examples from across our network and we have included a few in this report. We are incredibly proud of our communities' resilience and generosity during this time of grave crisis and we mourn the loss of the thousands of our citizens who died as a result of the Pandemic.
Large urban areas have been hit hard by Covid-19, partly due to levels of deprivation. Core Cities UK is determined that this crisis must lead to change, seizing the opportunity to build an inclusive, greener future economy in which cities, city regions and their communities are supported to become resilient and empowered to fulfil their potential.
The Core Cities’ swung into action as soon as the Pandemic hit, providing immediate help and support to communities and individuals that found themselves struggling without basic services.
during the Pandemic
Early on in the pandemic, Core Cities UK began policy work around what the immediate recovery might look like. This work was fed into Government through ministerial and Whitehall channels, working with several national groups on aspects of economic recovery. A selection, including links, is linked on the right.
In April we published Strengthening the Core, a paper to Government that looked at how cities could drive national recovery.
The Cultural Cities Recovery Report was a follow up to our ground-breaking 2018 Cultural Cities Enquiry and the report looked at the role of culture and hospitality in Covid-19 recovery.
This year also saw the group start thinking about the longer-term future. We asked ourselves how Covid-19 might change our cities and how we could work with Government to make the British state smarter and more responsive to the challenges ahead. As Brexit became a reality, we started to looked at the future of international cooperation between cities.
