Getting London Growing Again

In a session chaired by Tony Travers, Madeleine Sumption, Mark Kleinman, Ben Rogers and Andrew Carter will discuss the issue of London's growth in the backdrop of London's Mayoral elections. 

In early March 2020, when London was starting to think about Mayoral elections - initially due in May 2020 - we organised a short series of roundtables to discuss key policy issues for the City of London. Following the 12-month postponement of all May elections due to Covid, the London Mayoral elections have now been confirmed for 6 May 2021. Therefore, we have decided to resume our series of events to discuss the key issues facing the new Mayor of London after the elections, ranging from leadership, London’s growth to-the levelling up agenda.

This interactive session will bring together professionals, academics and the public around presentations and a general discussion.

Andrew Carter is Centre for Cities Chief Executive since April 2017. Before that he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Policy and Research with overall responsibility for the Centre’s research and policy programme. Andrew has over 20 years of experience working on urban economic policy issues for public and private development agencies, consultants and research institutes.  He has also spent time in the US as part of the Churchill Foundation’s Fellowship Programme reviewing urban economic development policy and practice in American cities including New York, Washington DC, Boston and Chicago.

Mark Kleinman is Professor of Public Policy and Director of Analysis at the Policy Institute at King's College London. He has been a government adviser at the No. 10 Strategy Unit, a civil servant, and a policy director for all three London Mayors. His interests include the economy and business, migration, urban governance, regulation, digital innovation and technology, and UK-EU relations. He has held academic posts at the University of Cambridge and LSE, as well as a chair in international social policy at the University of Bristol. In 2015 he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto.

Ben Rogers is founding director of Centre for London, urbanist, author and commentator. Ben Rogers is now Visiting Senior Fellow for LSE Cities, leading a new strand of work on European cities, building on his interests in civic engagement, public space and urban democracy. Previously Ben was an Associate Director of IPPR for five years and subsequently led strategy teams at Haringey Council, the Department for Local Government and Communities and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, where he wrote the government’s strategy on ‘Quality of Place’. Ben has also been appointed Professor in Practice at the University of London. 

Madeleine Sumption is the Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. She is a policy specialist focusing on the impacts of migration policies and the role of migrants in the labour market. Madeleine’s research interests include labour migration, the economic and social impacts of migration policies, and immigrant integration. Before joining Oxford, Madeleine was Director of Research for the international program at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, DC. She remains a Non-resident Fellow with Migration Policy Institute Europe. Madeleine is also a member of the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent panel that advises the UK Government on migration issues. She is also Chair of Migration Statistics User Forum, which brings together producers and users of migration data. In 2017, she received an MBE for services to social science

Tony Travers is Visiting Professor at LSE's Department of Government and Director of LSE London. His key research interests include local and regional government, elections and public service reform. Professor Travers’ knowledge is frequently sought by policy makers and he has advised a range of select committees and think tanks. He also provides expert analysis for broadcast and print media, regularly appearing on major television and radio networks.

LSE London is a research centre at LSE that focuses on the economic and social issues of the London region, as well as the problems and possibilities of other urban and metropolitan regions. The centre has a strong international reputation particularly in the fields of labour markets, social and demographic change, housing, finance, and governance, and it is the leading academic centre for analyses of city-wide developments in London.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LondonMayoralElections