Second Edition of the City Innovation Brief

The brief highlights where money is being invested in UK cities and what future opportunities might look like within the advanced urban services sector. It has been developed as a go to guide for City Managers and as a window onto customer demand for businesses in the advanced urban services sector.

Focussing on the period September – December 2017, the report looks at how cities are innovating to provide better services to residents more efficiently and sustainably.

This edition has a special feature on how cities are using innovative and smart solutions to manage and enhance the public realm and the challenges and opportunities cities will face in the future. It also presents the level of funding and procurement for Advanced Urban Services and Smart Cities as well as collating insights across political, economic, environmental and social themes.

Nicola Yates, Chief Executive Officer at Future Cities Catapult said:

“As the Government’s Industrial Strategy white paper rightly acknowledges, ‘place’ is a foundation of economic productivity. Places with the right characteristics, assets and resources allow innovation to proliferate and businesses to grow, yielding prosperous communities.

“Circumstances are challenging for city administrations in the UK, with significant pressures on public spending and rising demand for certain services. But today, as in the past, the answer to solving the complex and expensive challenges facing our cities and urban areas lies in embracing innovation. Just as gaslights tackled Victorian public safety issues and high-tension elevator cables unlocked new heights in which people could live and work, so too today’s urban innovations promise not only to improve the lives of citizens and deliver efficiencies in public administration, but also to create new opportunities for business to exploit and more productive places where everyone can prosper.”