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‘Future cities’ proposals vie for £24m

Thirty city and borough councils from across the UK are set to carry-out government-funded studies in a bid to win a £24m ‘future city’ prize.

Each council will receive £50,000 from the Technology Strategy Board to complete feasibility studies showing how they could integrate their transport, communications and other infrastructure projects.

The aim is to improve the local economy, increase quality of life and reduce impact on the environment.

Cities will also be able to submit a proposal for a large-scale ‘future cities demonstrator’, showing how the city’s multiple systems will be integrated and how challenges in the city will be addressed. The stand-out council will be awarded £24m to implement the proposal.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: “We planned originally to fund twenty feasibility studies but because of the number of high quality initial proposals received from councils across the whole country we decided to increase the funding available so that thirty studies could be carried out. The results will be made public and we look forward to seeing some exciting future city demonstrator proposals.”

The city and borough councils that have each secured £50,000 funding for the studies are: Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Camden, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Enfield, Glasgow, Ipswich, Leeds (working with Bradford), Leicester, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Salford, Sheffield, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Swindon and Warrington.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .