The State of the English Cities was a 2006 study of the social and economic performance of the major cities of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, sponsored by the

Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government in ...

department of the

United Kingdom Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

History

The programme was commissioned by the then

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duti ...

in 2000 as a result of the Urban White Paper ''Our Towns and Cities: The Future - Delivering an Urban Renaissance'', which drew attention to the importance of major cities in driving economic growth.Robinson, Phillipa
A brief history
, State of the Cities Database, Presentation to North East Regional Information Partnership One of the main challenges of the study was to make sure that the statistics used were comparable across cities and not skewed by

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

boundaries, which often do not reflect the physical or economic realities of the settlements they define. Instead of focussing on political areas statistics were therefore published for

primary urban area A primary urban area (PUA) is an area defined by the Department for Communities and Local Government in the United Kingdom as a statistical tool for analysing the major cities of England, originating as part of their '' State of the English Cities'' ...

s and

travel to work area A travel to work area or TTWA is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentres, to indicate an area where the population would generally commute to a ...

s, as respectively physical and economic models of cities' extent, and areas of town centre activity, reflecting cities'

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

s. An interim progress report was published in January 2005, with the main ''State of the English Cities'' report being published in March 2006,State of the English Cities
Communities and Local Government and the ''State of the Cities Database'' of comparative statistics going live in November 2006.

References

Cities in England Geography of England Politics of England Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

External links

State of the English CitiesThe State of the Cities Database
{{England-poli-stub